Standardized Patient

Hey all I'm new here, but I'm slowly learning! I was wondering if any of you have been a standardized patient for student teaching? I'm very close to the Penn State Medical school and they are in HIGH demand for standardized patients (ie. someone that medical students practice physical exams, gynecology exams, etc on). You have 4-5 students in a day and get paid about double minimum wage for normal exams and even more so for gentiourinary exams. I'm really interested in getting examined professionally ALL day, and getting paid is like icing on the cake. Would you guys suggest it for someone with a medical fetish?

Absolutely, assuming that you're comfortable both with your body and with the manipulation involved.

I've been doing this work for a few years. Where I work, I'm both a standardized patient (actor and body) and a teaching assistant. For the genital work, the TA teaches the exam to the 4+ students and is the demo body offering live feedback.

I would certainly recommend you get involved as an SP. But make no mistake in thinking there is no effort required on your part as you must know the subject matter very well and be able to think quickly on your feet. But yes, MedFet and SP's are a match made in heaven. Teaching 23 year old female med students how to perform the male genital exam IS the icing on the cake figuratively speaking that is. I have posted about many of my experiences as an SP on this forum.

The pay sounds kind of low but that is not why I am involved as an SP & TA. For the genitourinary teaching exam I get paid about $50 per hour. Most other SP activities average $20-$25 per hour. That could explain why SP's are in short supply at PSU.

Oh you all are so helpful and encouraging! I'm seriously getting close to filling out the application now! Haha. My number one hold back is that I'm bigger (well, I'm BIG lol), and I'm not sure if they're even looking for someone like that (all the the form says they're looking for all kinds of people). I'm fine with my body being on display, it's just a matter of is that even something they'd be looking for..

Sounds like that could interesting and easy money!

This type of experience sounds really hot, but, not paid very well at all. Even $50 per hour sounds very low to me for having the penis and scrotum exposed and examined in a group situation like this.

I disagree with exam doc. having your penis and scrotum examined for a group AND getting $50 an hour for the privilege - what more could you ask for? It sounds like a perfect arrangement to me.

Jimmy, I agree, even though I don't have a penis or scrotum, I enjoy this type of thing already so why not help students out AND get paid for something I like? The compensation isn't what I'm really wanting to do it for anyways! Although, I have put my dream on hold for a little, they need healthy individuals and I just had a platelet and WBC count come up a little messed up, requiring a bone marrow biopsy, which is the kind of medical stuff I'm NOT into.

This discussion meshes nicely with a book I just finished re-reading: "Public Privates: Performing Gynecology From Both Ends of the Speculum" by Terri Kapsalis (Duke University Press 1997). I might describe it as an academic exploration of the concept of gynecology as performance. I found it quite interesting, both the text and the extensive endnotes and bibliography. Chapter three details the author's experience working as a GTA - Gynecology Teaching Associate - at a university medical school in the late 1980's, teaching medical students how to do pelvic exams, using her own body as the model patient. Most fascinating, at least to me. A GTA always sounded like a perfect play partner for someone (like me) who would very much like to develop something approximating clinical competence at recognizing exactly what one is feeling with hands and fingers during, say, a bimanual or rectovaginal exam.