How simulated patients contribute to student learning in an authentic way, an interview study

Introduction Simulated patients (SPs) play an instrumental role in teaching communication skills and enhancing learning outcomes. Prior research mostly focused on the SP’s contribution to students’ learning outcomes by providing feedback afterwards. A detailed understanding of the contribution of the SP during SP-student encounters is currently lacking although the majority of the interaction between SPs and students occurs during the SP-student encounter. Therefore, this study focuses on how SPs see their contribution to meaningful student learning experiences during SP-student encounters. Methods We interviewed fifteen simulated patients from one institution. We explored their perspectives on meaningful learning experiences during SP-student encounters through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results SPs view their contribution to meaningful student learning during SP-student encounters from two perspectives. A collective perspective as a member of the community of SPs and an individual perspective. From the collective perspective, SPs believe that the fact that students deal with multiple varied SP-student encounters over time is of value for meaningful learning. From the individual perspective, we noticed that SPs think, act, and react from three different positions. First, as the patient in the role description, second, as a teaching aid and third, as an individual with personal experiences, beliefs, and values. SPs mentioned that the ratio between these different positions can vary within and between encounters. Conclusions According to SPs, we should value the variation between SPs, thereby creating meaningful variation in authentic interactions in SP-student encounters. SPs should be allowed to act and react from different positions during SP-student encounters, including their role description, as teaching aid, and based on their own experiences. In this way, SP-student encounters are optimized to contribute to meaningful student learning through authenticity.