characters developed a dry cough or injured their knee. Today, I am interested in finding out what brought Goldberg and Oakes into the job of becoming standardized patients.
Oakes discovered Brown’ s SP program through a colleague he met during his years as an actor in the local theater community, where he has performed in about 75 productions. He has also worked as an SP for the Rhode Island College nursing program’ s simulation center and for the physician assistant program at Johnson & Wales University.
Goldberg was introduced to the program through a physician. Like Oakes, Goldberg has participated in similar programs at the University of Rhode Island’ s College of Pharmacy and Johnson & Wales, as well as Brown University Health’ s Medical Simulation Center. Her credits include a patient, a worried, inquisitive family member of a patient, and an ultrasound subject for Rhode Island Hospital’ s anesthesiology department.
Oakes says that expressing not only physical illness but also the psychological and emotional aspects of disease is“ a lot of fun and also a challenge.” These cases help him practice his range for very intricate stage characters— and are valuable for the students.“ I certainly enjoy the cases that have a greater psychological component simply because it affords the medical students a greater opportunity to provide counsel, and that is just one of the joys of doing this job.”
His acting career has enabled him to add a creative spin to his SP roles.“ Although we are standardized patients, and we want the learning experience to be standardized … being on stage does help you think on your feet, and it does help you to maneuver and dance around a little bit within the very strict parameters,” he says.
Oakes dedicated his knowledge of acting to writing reviews as a theater critic, acquiring skills that have molded his approach to providing feedback on medical students’ clinical performances. In addition to giving the necessary critical feedback, he identifies their strengths as well through a holistic evaluation.
“ Observation is a skill that good actors and doctors share,” Oakes explains.“ To give proper feedback … you’ ve got to be watching, and you’ ve got to be listening. … You could be the most eloquent speaker in the world, but you’ re not a good actor if you’ re not listening to the other person on stage with you.”
Chofay says,“ Many of our [ SPs ] have been with the program for years and have really fine-tuned where students either have apprehensions or have difficulty with the more challenging parts of the exam, and are able to actually coach them … in a very unique way that’ s different than the faculty.”
Sometimes the lines between acting and reality blur. Goldberg recalls one particularly resonant case about endof-life conversations for a diagnosis that a loved one had experienced. In such circumstances, the tears come more naturally.
Oakes, too, has been on the receiving side of end-of-life discussions with families.“ The doctors and the health care practitioners that I had real-life discussions with were so sensitive and so tactful,” he says.“ If I can help instill that in the next generation of health care practitioners, that’ s honoring one’ s loved ones.”
ACT VI: BECOMING A STANDARDIZED PATIENT To land the part, SPs must undergo a rigorous application, interview, audition, and review process. Then, as for any performance, the standardized patients have to be directed, study their lines, watch sample performances on video, and rehearse well in advance. Handley organizes and leads intense SP training centering on communication,“ reinforcing that how something is said is just as critical as what is said,” she says. The SPs start preparing their cases from several weeks to a month prior to their assigned sessions. They also take on roles of extras, or understudies, for other SPs.
Their cases, which can range from one to five at a time, span subspecialties and medical class years. SPs review slideshow presentations about their cases and read about the materials, anticipated questions, and the answers they are able to provide to the students.“ It’ s a lot of memorizing, and keeping [ the cases ] straight is a challenge,” Goldberg says, not to mention the medical jargon that she has absorbed throughout her time in the role.
“ We have the proper, correct, and uniform answers to provide to each student so that the students’ learning experience is as standardized as humanly possible,” Oakes says.
Oakes acknowledges the heavy memorization involved on the students’ part, who must learn their physical exam maneuvers like stage directions and their checklist of interview questions like response lines in a play. He occa-
14 HEALTH DISCOVERIES @ BROWN l FALL 2026