A study on the standard setting, validity and reliability of the standardized patient performance rating scale – student version

Abstract Introduction: The quality of standardized patients’ performance plays a significant role in the effectiveness of clinical skills education. Therefore, providing standardized patients with constant feedback is pivotal, and as the students interact one-on-one with standardized patients, it is essential to learn the students' perspectives immediately after the encounters. There is not a single study where a standard scale with a cut-off score is specifically developed for students to assess the quality of standardized patients’ performance immediately after the encounters. The three main goals of this study include: 1) Developing a scale to measure standardized patients’ performance by students; 2) Examining its psychometric properties; and 3) Doing a standard-setting to determine a cut-off score for the scale. Materials and methods: In the scale developing process; for the pilot testing, and validation process, 702 medical students participated, whereas for the standard-setting process, seven educators took part in this study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. For the standard-setting study, the extended Angoff method was utilized. Results: As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, the scale had a single-factor structure as confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.91. The scale consisted of nine items. The score of a standardized patient at the borderline was 24.11 out of 45. Conclusions: "Standardized Patient Performance Rating Scale – Student Version" is a valid and reliable scale for assessing the performance of standardized patients by the students immediately. It will guide standardized patient trainers during their training and will enable standardized patients to assess and develop their weaknesses on an individual performance level.