Standardized Patient Case: A Troubled Soldier

Abstract

Abstract This standardized patient case features a young soldier who has recently been experiencing significant emotional distress. The case was designed to provide a tool to assess medical trainees' skills in psychiatric interviewing and case formulation. Medical trainees must become proficient in the initial evaluation of patients with mental health concerns, and this standardized patient case provides an opportunity to develop and/or assess those skills. No formal study of this resource has yet been undertaken. We have found that this standardized patient case has provided our department with an excellent tool for the evaluation and assessment of the clinical skills of third-year clerks. We have used this case to assess clerks' interviewing skills, data-gathering skills, oral presentation skills, and diagnostic reasoning abilities. Because the case addresses core issues in clinical psychiatry, it has provided us an opportunity to assess students' knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding depression, substance abuse, grief/bereavement, and suicide.

Keywords

• Depression
• Suicide
• Mental Status Examination
• Alcohol
• Grief
• Bereavement