Standardized Patient Program

Standardized patients (SPs) play an important role in health sciences education across all disciplines. A Standardized Patient is a person who has been trained to accurately and consistently portray an actual patient at a particular point in time; the SP presents with the patient's history, personality, physical finding, emotional structure and response pattern. Why not just use actual patients? While actual or 'volunteer' patients are sometimes used for training, their changing health status makes them unsuitable for situations that require objectivity and consistency. By using trained SPs, we can ensure that each student encounters the same 'patient', allowing for more consistency in training, learning and assessment.


The Program provides Standardized Patients for educational programs across faculties at the University of Alberta, and to external clients including Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), MacEwan University, Alberta Health Services and the private sector. Our SP Program is available to any group that wants to use simulation to create authentic, interactive experiences with trained professionals.


What is a Standardized Patient?

Bariatric transfer simulation

Learn more about Standardized Patients

Standardized Patient Interview on CBC Radio

CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition host Michael Enright interviews Standardized Patients about their profession and how they're helping to shape the next generation of medical professionals. Including two of UAlberta's Standardized Patients' Penny Tucker and Fred Hoeber. Listen to the interview here.