Abstract

This article examines the clinical staging of simulations using actors to perform as standardized patients (SPs) in a nursing simulation laboratory. Detailed multimodal analysis of video-recordings of SP training shows how the perceiving body of standardized patient is transformed as a map that systematizes, organizes, and classifies novices’ knowledge into a unified system of clinical practice. I develop a “gesture-touch clustersµ framework to illustrate how embodied practices are mobilized as a systematic activity to provide scaffolding for the performance of standard nursing interventions. By calling attention to mapping the use of clinical practice onto the live body of the standardized patient this article considers standards as residing in the bodily and interactive practices, not in their discursive articulations in clinical scripts, protocols, and checklists.