Depression in the LGBT Patient: A Standardized Patient Encounter

Date of Review: January, 2019

The MedEdPORTAL publication is a standardized patient case intended for a medical student on clerkships as part of a culminating 3rd year OSCE exam. The patient is a 17 year-old boy who presents with fatigue. Examinees must elicit symptoms of depression and discover that the patient has worry over an unprotected sexual encounter with a male partner 3 weeks prior. They are scored on their communication skills, history-taking, physical exam, and clinical reasoning. The post encounter is in the style of the USMLE Step 2 CS examination, so it will be generalizable to other schools, and the grading rubric would be easy to use. The case is rich in detail and opportunity to express empathy and rapport-building. Different institutions write SP cases differently; I think the case would be simpler to train if it had just provided the SP with their own story rather than given answers to potential questions from the examinees. I would also love to know the benchmark score set for passing the case, or at least the range of scores so far from examinees. —Heather Heiman, MD, NCEAS

Institution:

University at Buffalo State University of New York School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences

Where Was the Curriculum Implemented?

Buffalo, NY

Source of the Curriculum/Resource:

MedEdPORTAL

Level of Learner Assessment:

Demonstration of skill in a controlled environment (OSCE, Simulation)