Abstract
Standardized patient examinations (SPE)are widely used in medical education to assess skillsthat cannot be measured with written examinations.Trained actors termed standardized patients (SPs) areused to simulate patients with specific medicalproblems. SPs typically use behaviorally specificchecklists and rating scales to evaluate examinees. This study explored the use of faculty and SP globalratings of students' clinical and interpersonal skillsin an SPE. The reliability of global ratings wasfound to on par with more specific behaviorallyanchored ratings. Global ratings were also found tobe predictive of written tests of clinical knowledgeand ratings of actual clinical performance aftercontrolling for behaviorally anchored ratings. Facultyglobal ratings were more reliable and more predictiveof other performance than SP global ratings. Theseresults suggest global ratings by faculty observersand possibly SPs can provide unique and usefulinformation in these performance-based examinations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, M.B., Stillman, P.L. & Wang, Y. (1994). Growing use of standardized patients in teaching and evaluation in medical education. Teaching and Learning in Medicine 6: 15–22.
Brennen, R.L. (1983). Elements of Generalizability Theory. Iowa City, IA: American College Testing Program.
Crick, J.E. & Brennan, R.L. (1983). Manual for GENOVA: A GENeralized Analysis Of Variance System. ACT Technical Bulletin No. 43. Iowa City, IA: American College Testing Program.
Messick, S. (1990). Validity. In R.L. Linn (ed.), Educational Measurement. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Millman, J., Slovacek, S.P., Kulick, E. & Mitchell, K.J. (1983). Does grade inflation affect the reliability of grades? Research in Higher Education 19: 423–429.
Regehr, G., MacRae, H., Reznick R.K. & Szalay, D. (1998). Comparing the psychometric properties of checklists and global ratings scales for assessing performance on an OSCE-format examination. Academic Medicine 73: 993–997.
Reznick, R.K., Blackmore, D., Dauphinee, W.D., Rothman, A.I. & Smee, S. (1996). Large-scale high-stakes testing with an OSCE: report from the Medical Council of Canada. Academic Medicine 7: S19–S21.
Rosebraugh, C.J., Speer, A.J., Ainsworth, M.A., Solomon, D.J. & Callaway M.R. (1996). Developing a presentation and problem-solving station in a multistation standardized-patient examination. Academic Medicine 71: S102–S104.
Rosebraugh, C.J., Speer, A.J., Solomon, D.J., Szauter, K.E., Ainsworth, M.A., Holden, M.D., Lieberman, S.A. & Clyburn, E.B. (1997). Validation of a standardized patient examination format; Setting gold standards and defining quality of performance. Academic Medicine 72: 1012–1014.
Speer, A.J., Solomon, D.J. & Ainsworth, M.A. (1996). An innovative evaluation method in an internal medicine clerkship. Academic Medicine 71: S76–S78.
Swanson, D.B., Norman, G.R. & Linn R.L. (1995). Performance-based assessments: Lessons from the health professions. Educational Researcher 245): 5–35.
Van der Vleuten, C.P.M & Swanson, D.B. (1990). Assessment of clinical skills with standardized patients: The state of the art. Teaching and Learning in Medicine 2: 58–76.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Solomon, D.J., Szauter, K., Rosebraugh, C.J. et al. Global Ratings of Student Performance in a Standardized Patient Examination: Is the Whole More than the Sum of the Parts?. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract 5, 131–140 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009878124073
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009878124073