Written Simulation of Patient-Doctor Encounters. 1. Research Instrument for Registration of the Performance of General Practitioners

A written simulation of patient-doctor encounters is described,involving five patients with vague complaints, an ‘instruction’patient with sinusitis and a ‘test’ patient withacute appendicitis. Nineteen general practitioners were confrontedwith it. The extent to which the simulation distorted realityand the implications of such distortions were considered inan attempt to assess the content validity. The conclusion wasthat the simulation gave a realistic impression of the generalpractitioners' diagnostic and therapeutic approach to patientswith vague complaints. The searching procedures in relationto the complaint and the patient's perception of the complaintwere adequately depicted, and the therapeutic procedures approximatedclosely to reality. There was some distortion in the attentionpaid to psychosocial aspects as these were given more attentionin the simulation than they receive in reality.