Using a standardized family to teach clinical skills to medical students

Background: The use of standardized patients has been an accepted instructi onal methodology in medical education for many years. A logical evolution o f this methodology is the creation of a standardized patient family. Description: This article describes one such standardized family, the Jones family, and how the family is used to teach interpersonal skills, intervie wing, communication, counseling, and history-taking skills to medical stude nts. Evaluation: After several years of using the Jones family, we have found th at more comprehensive scripts need to be developed that recruitment and ret ention of standardized patients for a yearlong program does not seem to be a problem, and that the value added by a standardized family greatly enhanc es the educational experience for students. A standardized family seems a l ogical educational vehicle for teaching continuity of care, confidentiality , contextual placement of medical information within family dynamics, cultu ral beliefs, community orientation, and generalism. Conclusion: A standardized family is a viable instructional methodology tha t deserves greater use in medical education. Teaching and Learning in Medic ine, 12(3), 145-149. Copyright (C) 2000 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc .