Case vignettes for simulated patients based on real patient experiences in the context of OSCE examinations: workshop experiences from interprofessional education

Background: Patient-centredness (PCN) is an increasingly demanded objective in health care and has gained importance for the care situation, for research, and the education of healthcare professions. The literature shows that the term PCN is not uniformly defined. Key aspects for the concept of PCN can be found in the integrative model and its dimensions by Scholl and colleagues (2014), which are incorporated into the acquisition of competencies in Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) examination formats. The inclusion of subjective experiences of persons directly affected in health-related situations is recognized as an important factor for continuous improvement in health care. In the interprofessional education of healthcare professions, subjective experiences serve as a starting point in relation to OSCE exams. In this context, the project “DIPEx” “Database of Individual Patients’ Experiences” stands for the systematic collection and evaluation of subjective experiences of illness using scientific methods. Aim: The aim of this interprofessional training workshop was to show 1. how PCN can support the writing of case vignettes based on real experiences from systematically collected narratives within the DIPEx project, as well as 2. the preparation of simulation subjects for OSCE examinations in the healthcare professions. Methods: Interactive, moderated workshop with two theory-based input presentations on the systematic development of interprofessional case vignettes based on four steps, group work with synthesis in the form of statements, and a concluding outlook. Results: With regard to the aims of the workshop, the synthesis included results at two levels: 1. exemplary results on aims not explicitly addressed: Interprofessional teaching is full of presuppositions and requires clarification of four different perspectives in advance to be included in case development; 2. exemplary results on explicitly addressed aims: Listening to and incorporating the real-life experiences and narratives of persons directly affected in health-related situations and their families was seen as an important learning aspect for PCN in relation to the practitioner-patient relationship. . Five key statements on explicit aims for case development involving PCN emerged from the group work. Conclusion: Competency-based interprofessional education of health professionals and PCN can benefit from real patient narratives of health and illness as simulated patients can portray roles in OSCE formats in a realistic and convincing manner.