How to become a standardized patient

Production pressure starts early in med school. The student is squeezed for time even from their earliest patient encounters. Also, genuinely sick patients, even if they have volunteered for the repeat history and physical of a med student will show signs of fatigue and weary of the process, increasing the student’s haste to wrap things up. Plus, there might also be a resident or attending physician mentor in the room. They are used to the 5 minute encounter and are certainly showing body language to wrap things up after an hour. My first patient encounters suffered from all of these elements.