Blurred Boundaries: Sexuality and Power in Standardised Patients’ Negotiations of the Physical Examination

Blurred Boundaries: Sexuality and Power in Standardised Patients’ Negotiations of the Physical Examination
Lead Author: Grainne P. Kearney
Submitted by: Mary Launder, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

Working with standardised or simulated patients (SPs) is now commonplace in Simulated Learning Environments. Embracing the fact that they are not a homogenous group, some literature suggests expansion of learning with SPs in health professional education by foregrounding their personal experiences. Intimate examination teaching, whether with or without the help of SPs, is protected by a particular degree of ceremony given the degree of potential vulnerability. However, other examinations may be equally intrusive for example the close proximity of an eye examination or a chest examination in a female patient. In this study, we looked at SPs’ experiences of boundary crossing in any examinations, sensitised by Foucault’s concept of the clinical gaze. We wished to problematise power relations that construct and subject SPs as clinical tools within simulation-based education.

Read the full article in Advances of Simulation here.

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