Checklist agreement between standardized patients and faculty.

The agreement between standardized patients' (SPs) and faculty in scoring student performance is an important component in determining the accuracy of SP assessment scores. For this study, checklist scores completed by SPs were compared to checklists completed by faculty. The SPs completed the checklists immediately following each SP-student interaction. Faculty reviewed videotapes from randomly selected interactions and completed the same checklists as the SPs. Overall, agreement between SPs and faculty ranged between 81 percent and 92 percent, with a mean of 86 percent. The interpersonal skills agreement ranged from 78 percent to 97 percent and technical skills from 82 percent to 89 percent. Agreement between SPs and faculty was good especially in later cases. Discrepancies were most often due to SPs assigning credit when the faculty did not. This study supports the use of SPs as accurate, relatively inexpensive, and feasible recorders of student performance for selected skills.