THE EFFECT OF FATIGUE ON THE ACCURACY OF STANDARDIZED PATIENTS CHECKLIST RECORDING

Background: One major concern in the use of standardized patients (SPs ) to assess clinical competency is whether fatigue affects the accurac y of SPs' checklist recording. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess how fatigue affects clinical competency. Methods: In this st udy, 10 SPs each interacted with as many as 21 residents in a 12-hr pe riod. All the encounters were videotaped for subsequent review. Result s: Although most SPs subjectively experienced a certain degree of fati gue, their accuracy in checklist recording did not seem to be affected . No significant differences in checklist scores were detected between morning and afternoon encounters, between the first 5 and the last 5 encounters, and throughout the day. Item agreement scores between actu al test and videotaped review also did not differ significantly. Concl usion: We concluded that fatigue does not seem to systemically affect the accuracy of SPs' checklist recording. This finding is of potential importance to organizations that may test large number of candidates at national or regional testing centers.