2016-2021

The research ‘Human Simulation’ investigates how the human body, a person and various health concerns are being simulated in medical education by using standardised patients (SP). SPs work with medical students helping them practise their clinical and interpersonal skills in preparation for medical exams. One aspect of the project focuses on the SP training and assessment in a simulation clinic, and the other one on specific simulation scenario of breaking bad news (BBN). In this scenario the SPs are portraying three distinct personas or demeanours with a pre-scripted repertoire of responses. The research identified previously unknown unscripted performative techniques in the SP work.

The data collection took place in 2016 during a field trip in the Surgical & Clinical Skills Center at University of Texas McGovern Medical School. As part of this fellowship, the artist-researcher developed performative methods to explore the tension between standardisation and authenticity in human simulation. She underwent training to become a ‘standardised patient’ whilst inquiring into the trainers’ ways of directing the SP performance. To further understand the medical students’ task, she played the role of the physician and practised delivering unfavourable medical information to the SPs. This performative interview method recognises SPs as medical educators in their own right, eliciting their advice in character, in terms of what an appropriate way to proceed would be.

This study is part of Kaisu Koski’s Academy Research Fellow project ‘Video Scenarios in Medical Education: Polyphony and Non-linearity in Audiovisual Doctor–Patient Narratives’, which was funded by the Academy of Finland 2015–2020, and co-funded by Tampere University. The project also received funding from the Rice University Humanities Research Center.