What does SP stand for?

The slim book defines four criteria for the achievement of expertise, assesses the advantages and disadvantages of written formats and computer-based simulations for testing clinical reasoning, and recommends clinical examinations using standardized patients during postgraduate training.

The space will contain classrooms, a state-of-art clinical simulation center and a standardized patient facility where current and future clinicians will learn the latest clinical procedures as well as communication and teambuilding skills.

The initiative is intended to advance the adoption of standardized patient identification (ID) cards containing compliant, machine-readable information by January 1, 2010.

This environment allows them to practice and make mistakes in an environment conducive to learning before they go to the patient," said Tamara Owens, president of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators.

Investigators informed the physicians that they would be visited by standardized patients (SPs) over the next several months and that each SP would present with a combination of common symptoms.

Resources Association of Standardized Patient Educators, www.

of Rutgers University, suggests that medical schools should help prepare doctors to appropriately manage their emotions in routine clinical work through personal awareness training, facilitating reflection on the effectiveness of interactions with patients through use of standardized patients and videotapes, and expanding physicians' capacity to address a broad range of patient needs through teamwork training.

of Massachusetts Medical School in the standardized patient program.