Simulated Patient Practices in Psychiatry and Communication Training

One of the effective methods of teaching to earn cognitive and psychomotor behaviors for students is interactive methods in which they actively participate in learning process. Simulated/standardized patient can be used in simulation application which is one type of the interactive methods. The simulant patient consists of those who have been trained to act and display the real patient scenario. The simulant patient provides a safe learning environment based on experience in virtual or laboratory environment prior to the actual patient environment for students. This application helps students to increase the level of knowledge and skills, their self adequacy, their motivation and their safety, reduce their level of anxiety and improve their clinical decision making skills. The aim of this article is to briefly review simulated patient practices in communication training and psychiatry.