Case Study: University of Liverpool School of Medicine
In 2015 Peel Roleplay were appointed as the new full service Simulated Patient provider for the School of Medicine. Following a competitive tender exercise, we were determined the most suitable “Rolls Royce” provider to meet the Medical School’s objective of ‘up-scaling’ their Simulated Patient use, driven by the desire to move to a concurrent assessment model for student year groups, and the resulting need for a much larger cohort of trained, specialist Simulated Patients.
In the first year, we were required to deliver OSCEs with 60 Simulated Patients per day within 8 weeks from award; we delivered this with a 100% success and attendance rate. Evidenced by several subsequent tender renewals, Peel have worked closely with the School of Medicine in a partnership that has professionalised every aspect of delivery, particularly focusing on assessment delivery and implementation of new practices to drive even better standardisation.
““Since 2015, Peel Roleplay have provided the simulated patient (SP) provision for clinical assessment and teaching for the School of Medicine, University of Liverpool.
Over the last four years there have been a number of changes to our clinical assessments, moving to large-scale exams. We have greatly valued the support and input provided by Iain and the dedicated team from PEEL Roleplay over this time.
Aspects worked on in partnership have included the training of SPs to provide highly skilled feedback to students in formative assessments, the development of the standardisation workshops run prior to all clinical assessments and a process of quality assurance during the exams. We have also worked together to benchmark our simulated practice against the combined ASPiH and ASPE standards of best practice. PEEL Roleplay also work to continue to grow the cohort of SPs. The coordination of the large number of SPs on each of the clinical assessment days (around 50 per day) is smooth and efficient making sure that all stations and quality assurance is covered by appropriate SPs. The joint development of quality assurance SPs has been noted by the external examiners ‘A particular strength is in the involvement of simulated patients and spare examiners in the internal evaluation of OSCE stations and use of their feedback in station review. This is certainly to be encouraged as a means of improving the assessment as well as providing continuous professional development for simulated patients and examiners.
Following a recent tender process, we are delighted to be continuing to work with PEEL Roleplay for the foreseeable future.”
– Deborah Collier, OSCE & Clinical Psychometric Lead (now Director of Assessment) in discussion with assessment colleagues.