Research reveals how standardized patient feedback helps students learn

Nursing students and a faculty member talk with a standardized patient, a person trained to simulate a real patient with a particular medical condition.

Gary Royals, clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has attended a lot of conferences. As he recalls, sometimes they're interesting, sometimes they're dull, sometimes fellow attendees aren't even very engaging.

But this summer's conference, he said, "was a blast."

Royals participated in the 2026 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) conference in June.

What set this experience apart? For starters, Royals presented with fellow members of the School of Nursing's Simulation Center team, a group known for their novel and collaborative approaches.

They also happened to present on a popular topic: how incorporating feedback from standardized patients (SPs) into simulation debriefs makes a positive difference for students.

What is a standardized patient?

Standardized patients (SPs) are essentially actors in healthcare simulations. Their role provides students the opportunity to interact with actual people, minus the pressures of a real-life clinical setting.

Standardized patients fill a crucial role

Casey Blizzard, simulation center operations coordinator, said their presentation about standardized patients was "a full house".

Boise State SPs are highly trained to give effective feedback during simulation debriefs. They fill a crucial role in nursing education: students learn how their communication and behavior can dramatically impact a patient's experience.

During their conference presentation, the research team explained how Boise State places SP feedback in the debrief agenda strategically. Students have time to process their emotions first, without being influenced by the SP's perspective. Then, SPs share what they heard or saw during the simulation and express how that made them feel.

The team's research revealed that SP feedback positively impacts students' learning as a whole: students were more receptive to feedback when it was given early in the debrief. Students also demonstrated enhanced emotional processing and less defensiveness during debriefs.

Standing room only

School of Nursing faculty and staff presented at the 2026 INACSL conference in Oklahoma City, OK.

"We had many questions; mostly people wanted us to share training docs [we did] and asked how we retain our skilled standardized patients," Blizzard wrote in an email.

While attendees wanted to hear more about Boise State's innovative approach to SPs, even more important than a packed-out presentation was the collaboration between faculty and staff. That's what "makes the magic happen," Blizzard said.

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