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Business, Thought, and Management Articles --- All about Medical Communication --- Recruiting and Securing Simulated Patients

Recruiting and Securing Simulated Patients

When conducting classes, exercises, and tests that utilize simulated patients, you must first recruit and secure simulated patients that can be used in those classes, exercises, and tests. There are several ways to secure simulated patients.

Recruiting and Securing Simulated Patients

Here is a brief introduction on how to recruit and secure simulated patients.

On-campus recruiting and securing: We will recruit university faculty, apprentices, graduate students or students to become simulated patients. It can be collected relatively easily, but if you practice with people you know, it will be absolutely easy to get acquainted and tend to lack realism. In addition, if the teacher is a simulated patient, the students undergoing the training experience a different pressure from interacting with the patient.

Public recruitment from the general public: Recruit people from the general public to become simulated patients. There are various recruitment methods, such as recruiting people who gathered at citizen lectures. If collected from the general public, it cannot be used immediately for classes or exams. It is necessary to take the time to understand the purpose, and to educate and nurture how to act and give feedback after the act.

Invitation from SP Study Group: This is a method of inviting from a group that trains simulated patients, such as SP Study Groups in various places. If you have someone who has been a simulated patient for many years, you will be able to perform without any education or training. However, there is a risk of discrepancies in the educational policy and purpose of the university, so even a simulated patient with experience should have a meeting in advance.

There are other ways to secure simulated patients, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the preparation time, costs, and educational benefits vary. Finding a good way is difficult.

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What is Medical Communication

Diseases and Their Causes
Medical care is to heal people and cure diseases. Those who are sick and in need of treatment are humans, and doctors who specialize in treating the illness professionally are also humans. Therefore, medical care requires communication between people.
History
It is only recently that medical communication studies have become a formal discipline in the medical, dentistry, and pharmacy departments. However, the history of medical communication itself is old, and it can be said that it began with the start of the profession of doctors who examine and treat patients.
Patient Emotions
A sick patient will interact with the doctor with various emotions. Sometimes he or she gets pessimistic about the disease, sometimes he or she neglects the disease, or he or she respects the doctor, and sometimes he or she fears or hates the doctor.
Doctor's Consultation
When a doctor examines a patient, at the moment he guesses, verifies, judges, and prescribes the name of the disease. Doctors must carefully observe the patient's condition, check for changes in the test data, and make decisions and take action each time.
Dental Treatment
In dental treatment, the dentist specializes in treating the mouth, such as teeth and gums. A lot of patients come to the dentist who have tooth decay due to tooth pain, and those who have tooth ache are sometimes frustrated or very anxious.
Pharmacist
Pharmacists work in hospitals and pharmacies to dispense the patient's medicine according to the prescription, hand the medicine directly to the patient, and do various other tasks related to medicine.

Necessity of Communication

Prevent Medical Accidents
A medical accident is a patient's illness or injury caused by a medical practice that should not have occured without medical practice. It is a sad story that a patient who comes to the hospital to treat a illness has a medical accident.
Medical Litigation
Medical litigation is generally a litigation brought by stakeholders, such as the patient, his or her family, or the family, to argue that the medical practice itself is inappropriate and that it is the cause of the disadvantages after the medical practice.
Informed consent
Informed consent is literally "consent based on announcement." This is the idea of giving the patient enough information in advance and obtaining the patient's consent before the doctor gives treatment, and is based on the intention of the patient in medical treatment.
Aging Society
As medical technology advances and people's lifespans increase, the world is aging. In an aging society, people are able to live longer, and that is fine in itself.
Cancer Announcement
In recent years, the treatment of cancer has changed dramatically. Even cancer can be cured by early detection. Excision surgery can be discharged in a short period of time, and you can live a normal life for many years.

Education and Training

Education for OSCE
OSCE is an objective clinical ability test that evaluates the clinical ability of medical and pharmacy students and clinical apprentices. An abbreviation of Objective Structured Clinical Examination in English, commonly called "OSCE".
Use of SP (Simulated Patient)
The need for learning and training in medical communication is growing. Students and apprentices want to quickly acquire communication skills before interacting with a real patient.
Role Play
Role play means "play a role." Role play is one of the training and practice of communication, and it is effective to feel the impressions and feelings received from various positions and to reconsider yourself.
Clinical Training
In clinical practice, trainees acquire various experiences by actually attending medical activities with patients at hospitals and facilities. For trainees, this is an opportunity to communicate with a real patient.

Challenges for the Future

Research on Medical Communication
Research on medical communication will be increasingly conducted in the future. With the advancement and complexity of medical care, communication between doctors and pharmacists and patients is becoming increasingly important.
The Role of the University
More and more universities are incorporating communication education in medicine and pharmacy. The role of the university is becoming very important for students to communicate well with patients in medical practice.
Patient Personality and Psychology
The patient is a human. Each human has his or her own personality. Even if you explain the same thing in the same way, different people understand the language differently. Whether or not to follow what a doctor says properly also depends on the person.

Simulated Patient and Communication Education

Simulated Patient and Communication Education
Communication education using simulated patients is spreading in university education in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. The purpose and current state of education and the future of education using simulated patients are considered.
Purpose of Use
The use of simulated patients is becoming more widespread as part of medical education, practical training, examinations, and improved services at medical facilities such as hospitals. By introducing simulated patients in university education, it is possible to obtain learning that is difficult to learn with text and lecture-based education.
SP Requirements
Simulated patients behave and act as actual patients in classes, exercises, and tests. The purpose of using simulated patients is to improve communication skills and test evaluation, so simulated patients need to be people who are suitable for the purpose.
Practices for Simulated Patients
What do you do if you actually become a simulated patient? What should a simulated patient be aware of? Here, we will explain the simulated patient's actions in order.
Acting Quality and Feedback
Places to utilize simulated patients include communication education classes, pre-clinical training, and exams such as OSCE. Depending on the situation and purpose, the quality of performance required of the simulated patient will differ.

Training of Simulated Patients

Rules and Etiquette
The simulated patient participates in classes and practical training, and participates in acting as a patient, feedback after acting, and discussions on communication. There are rules and etiquette to follow when participating in the education, training and testing of students and interns as simulated patients.
Recruiting and Securing Simulated Patients
When conducting classes, exercises, and tests that utilize simulated patients, you must first recruit and secure simulated patients that can be used in those classes, exercises, and tests. There are several ways to secure simulated patients.
Training of Simulated Patients
The use of simulated patients is expected to improve the communication skills of students and apprentices and contribute to improving the quality of medical services. Therefore, it is necessary for universities to secure people who will be simulated patients.
Performance Check and Guidance
Recruiting and nurturing simulated patients will eventually make use of simulated patients in classes, practical training, OSCE, etc. If you actually use it, you can see that there is a range of acting depending on the simulated patient.
Planned Training for OSCE
Secure a large number of simulated patients who can perform stably. Some universities recruit from local residents and train them as simulated patients.

Use of Simulated Patients

Use of Simulated Patients in Class
By using simulated patients in communication classes, it is possible to bring new changes not only to student skills but also to university classes. This is because a new perspective of a simulated patient is added, not only of teachers and of students.
Effects and Challenges
Utilizing simulated patients for communication education has various effects on university education. There are also university-specific and common issues in education using simulated patients.
Future of Communication Education
It is highly desirable that medical communication education using simulated patients be conducted at universities in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. Communication with patients is becoming increasingly important in healthcare.

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