Standardized patients and the Step 2CS

[desiree]

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Hi i am confused about the whole standardized patient thing on this exam.
How can you find any clinical signs on these patients if they are standardized (and i assume they are actors and nothing is really wrong with them)
I mean if someone has a murmur and you listen in on them you won't actually find anything. if someone has wheezy chest and possibly asthma, but they are just acting you won;t hear anything in their chest. So what are you supposed to write in your notes under physical exam findings? there wouldn't be any findings right? so would the entire phys exam be normal with these patients and you just have to go through the motions of how you would examine someone if they truly had something wrong with them?
i am utterly confused about this. i've never had to deal with a standardized patient at my school. 😕
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks 🙂

 

[klubguts]

The SPs have ways to "fake" physical findings. First, they can complain of pain with palpation of any area. They also may make whistling noises or say hush if you are supposed to be hearing wheezes or bruits/mumurs. I took this test a few months ago and had very few positive physical findings. IMHO, this is a very minor aspect of the CS exam...it seems more important that you know which organ systems to assess and how to properly document PE findings (most of my stuff was documenting pertinent negative findings). First Aid for step 2 CS covers much of this information and is helpful when you are preparing for this exam. Hope this helps some and good luck.

 

[desiree]

The SPs have ways to "fake" physical findings. First, they can complain of pain with palpation of any area. They also may make whistling noises or say hush if you are supposed to be hearing wheezes or bruits/mumurs. I took this test a few months ago and had very few positive physical findings. IMHO, this is a very minor aspect of the CS exam...it seems more important that you know which organ systems to assess and how to properly document PE findings (most of my stuff was documenting pertinent negative findings). First Aid for step 2 CS covers much of this information and is helpful when you are preparing for this exam. Hope this helps some and good luck.

Thanks so much for your reply. The whole thing seems so silly now that you have explained it to me,. I think i have to stop myself from laughing out loud if the SP would make such noises when i am examining them .that's so silly. Like a hush sound really is a murmur and you can time it to see if it's systolic or diastolic. what a ridiculous way to examine us and make us fork out 1200$
but thanks for enlightening me on this bizzarre test