MMI with Standardized Patients?

[nerdyjock90]

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I have an MMI coming up and they let us know that some of the stations will have standardized patients that we're expected to interact with for about 5 minutes. It says we are not expected to have clinical knowledge and the exercise is to evaluate interpersonal, professional, communication, empathy, and problem solving skills.

I have a background as an EMT but I'm assuming I shouldn't just take a patient history and get all of the relevant medical information I can? What do they expect us to do with these patients? Just shoot the breeze and talk casually, or do our best to actually focus on the why the patient came in and the medical issue they have? It would be nice if they told us specifically what was our role in the situation lol

Thanks for your help, just don't want to walk in and start getting a patient history only to have my evaluator think I was pretending to be a doctor!

 

[zerox117]

Just be a decent human being and give a crap about what the patient is going through. If you have problems experiencing things like emotion and empathy for others plights youre going to have a bad time. If it's an angry patient then once again take their emotions into account, empathize with them, be patient while offering alternatives, and apologize. Just my 2 cents.


EDIT- Also, be ok with silence. At one of my MMIs I had a patient who would reply with like 2 words then stared in the other direction.

 

[Ismet]

I had an MMI with an SP, and it was a little intense to expect a pre-med to do...like delivering bad news to a family member or something. I remember it had something to do with alcohol and I was talking to the patient's aunt. It's very unlikely you'd be expected to take a history or anything because you haven't learned how to do that yet. It'll be something about the communication and empathy you exhibit with the SP.

Agree with above that one of the best skills is allowing for silence. You don't have to fill the void. More often than not, the SP will fill that void, they're just processing during that silence. Translates to real life too.

 

[Cotterpin]

I think I might have gone to this same interview, OP. It wasn't very high pressure. My approach was just to basically ask them questions about their chief complaint and let the conversation flow naturally from there, asking some questions about their lifestyle, showing empathy, etc. By the end of the 5 minutes, I had a pretty decent idea of what might be going on with them and my questions got a little more directed, but I avoided making any kind of diagnosis or suggesting treatment. Then at the end when my time was up, I thanked them and wished them well. Who knows if I did it the right way. I guess I'll find out when I get my admissions decision!

 

[Cawolf]

You won't be expected to obtain a CC, HPI, or history . . . these are skills you are not expected to have at this time.

It will most likely be delivering bad news, demonstrating empathy, showing you can have a conversation, etc.

An example scenario could be, "You are a volunteer at a clinic and Mary just learned she has (some condition that will impact her life and be expensive to treat). She is waiting for her friend to pick her up and is visibly upset and crying. You have spoken with her before during her visits and go over to speak to her. . ."

Or, "John is a regular patient at the clinic you volunteer at, but you don't often talk to him as he is standoffish and stoic. This afternoon while he is waiting to be seen you notice he appears to have been crying and is upset. You are in the waiting room stocking magazines and decide to approach him . . ."

 

[ciestar]

I had an MMI with a SP and I didn't need to do anything clinically related. A very common problem was presented and I had to help the SP through it.

 

[nerdyjock90]

Just be a decent human being and give a crap about what the patient is going through. If you have problems experiencing things like emotion and empathy for others plights youre going to have a bad time. If it's an angry patient then once again take their emotions into account, empathize with them, be patient while offering alternatives, and apologize. Just my 2 cents.


EDIT- Also, be ok with silence. At one of my MMIs I had a patient who would reply with like 2 words then stared in the other direction.

I had an MMI with an SP, and it was a little intense to expect a pre-med to do...like delivering bad news to a family member or something. I remember it had something to do with alcohol and I was talking to the patient's aunt. It's very unlikely you'd be expected to take a history or anything because you haven't learned how to do that yet. It'll be something about the communication and empathy you exhibit with the SP.

Agree with above that one of the best skills is allowing for silence. You don't have to fill the void. More often than not, the SP will fill that void, they're just processing during that silence. Translates to real life too.

You won't be expected to obtain a CC, HPI, or history . . . these are skills you are not expected to have at this time.

It will most likely be delivering bad news, demonstrating empathy, showing you can have a conversation, etc.

An example scenario could be, "You are a volunteer at a clinic and Mary just learned she has (some condition that will impact her life and be expensive to treat). She is waiting for her friend to pick her up and is visibly upset and crying. You have spoken with her before during her visits and go over to speak to her. . ."

Or, "John is a regular patient at the clinic you volunteer at, but you don't often talk to him as he is standoffish and stoic. This afternoon while he is waiting to be seen you notice he appears to have been crying and is upset. You are in the waiting room stocking magazines and decide to approach him . . ."

I think I might have gone to this same interview, OP. It wasn't very high pressure. My approach was just to basically ask them questions about their chief complaint and let the conversation flow naturally from there, asking some questions about their lifestyle, showing empathy, etc. By the end of the 5 minutes, I had a pretty decent idea of what might be going on with them and my questions got a little more directed, but I avoided making any kind of diagnosis or suggesting treatment. Then at the end when my time was up, I thanked them and wished them well. Who knows if I did it the right way. I guess I'll find out when I get my admissions decision!

I had an MMI with a SP and I didn't need to do anything clinically related. A very common problem was presented and I had to help the SP through it.

Thanks everyone for the clarifications and advice, really appreciate it!