The Standardized Patient Program

The Standardized Patient Program is dedicated to providing healthcare learners with the tools necessary to foster more humanistic, patient-centered care.

The program utilizes trained individuals, known as Standardized Patients, to portray the roles of patients, family members, or others to allow professionals and students to practice physical exam skills, history taking skills, communication skills and other exercises.

The program's goal is to create a safe and controlled environment where learners master the fine art of patient care. During the course of their education, learners have multiple opportunities to practice this art with our standardized patients, receiving feedback on their clinical and communications skills from members of the faculty, their peers, and the standardized patients themselves.

As a result, when the time comes for our learners to begin seeing actual patients in clinics and hospitals, they feel more prepared and confident.

RN Simulation Specialists include:

• Emily Pritchard, RN BSN
• Kara Templeton, RN, BSN, CHSE
• Maria Shane, B.Ed, M.Ed 

What is a standardized patient?

"The Standardized Patient (SP) is a person who has been carefully coached to simulate an actual patient so accurately that the simulation cannot be detected by a skilled clinician. In performing the simulation, the SP presents the gestalt of the patient being simulated; not just the history, but the body language, the physical findings and the emotional and personality characteristics as well." - Howard S. Barrows, 1987

Our facilities

The Standardized Patient Program is housed within the Clinical Skills Suite, located on the second floor of the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville on the Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Campus featuring:

• 8,500 square feet
• 14 exam rooms
• Monitor Room
• 2 Classrooms
• SP Training Area

In the news

• Demand is high for pretend patients