The doctor's visit that students will simulate will sound similar to this: “Hello, good afternoon Mr. Ronda. How are you? I understand you're here because you have knee pain.” The mock doctor’s visit will take place at the medical school in examining rooms set up like standard doctor’s offices.

The students will practice screening and diagnosing patients on a weekly basis, or whatever the program calls for. The patients are considered standardized patients because they’ll have to put on the exact same act for every student who screens them.

The part-time role pays $20 an hour. The medical school looks to hire 15 "pretend" patients ranging from 20 to 70 years old.

“This person has to have a good memory and needs to remember the scenarios. Each session will be different. Today you may be presenting a patient with cough or pneumonia, and the next week you may be presenting a stroke,” said Dr. Ralitsa Akins, who will help in the hiring process.

Candidates need to be believable in their roles, and no acting or medical experience is necessary.

“They will be helping not only by portraying (a patient with) the disease but also assessing how collegial, how ethical, whether or not they (the student) completed every step of the examination,” said Akins.

Not only will the standardized patient be evaluating the student after the consultation, but the faculty will also be keeping an eye on the student-patient interaction because every session is recorded.

“They (the patient) will be specifically told what to do, how to do it, when to do it. If asked a question, what to answer,” said Akins. They will also learn how a doctor should examine them, so that if the student performs something wrong, the patient can recognize it.

The part-time position is indefinite, and the program looks to hire more people in the near future.

The candidate must have a flexible schedule, and be available in the afternoon. One week it may call for 20 hours of work, and the next week it might only be two hours.

For more information on the position, look under the Links Mentioned Section on our homepage. It's listed under Texas Tech Medical School.