“It is such a thrill to see these people in one hour go from total terror, we’ve actually had people pass out in the room from fear, to total confidence that they could do this if they had to.”
Most things in life we don’t want standardized. Skin color, personal opinions, sexual preferences, our landscape and geography, variety is the spice of life. There are a few things though that definitely need to be standardized, and probably not many higher up on the list than what a physician is going to do when they give you a prostate exam or how they are going to act if you suddenly pass out while in the room with them. Physicians, like professional sports referees, are a great group of people to have standardized. We definitely don’t want one doctor seeing a foul, and another doctor saying to play on. It could quite literally be a matter of life and death. Today’s guest is a standardized patient. Standardized patients act out various scenarios with physicians and nurses in medical school to make sure they get it right when they’re out in the real world.
“I’ve always said, “I’ve taken a couple of cruises on prostate exams”.”
“All of the cases we do, that are difficult patients, are based on real life situations…they really are things that people have encountered.”
Interview Contents
4:00 - The origin of standardized patients.
9:00 - Getting a subjective opinion.
10:00 - Communication skills.
13:00 - Needing a human in the room.
13:30 - Getting a medical education.
15:30 - Setting and types of teaching.
18:00 - Length of days.
19:50 - The regularity of work.
23:30 - Being a difficult patient.
28:30 - Invasive procedures.
36:00 - Pay.
37:00 - Making good doctors.
39:30 - Advice
