Training protocol of curriculum
TCM syndrome
This was a case-based and group-based curriculum that lasted for 10 weeks with a total of 40 class hours. The curriculum was organized by faculty members as a 4-class hour session comprised of two training clinical case, once a week. The curriculum is taught on simulation clinic at Shi-er-qiao campus of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese medicine. Training assistants who have signed confidentiality agreements were hired to assist faculty members during the curriculum. Three groups referred to the same course syllabus, utilized the same training clinical cases, experienced the same amount of training time. During the project period, an equal number of SPs were employed, that is, 10 student standardized patients in SSP-TCMs group and 10 occupational standardized patients in OSP-TCMs group. The faculty in the three groups were trained to use the identical rubric (e.g., evaluation of TCM clinical skills, written questions of TCM syndrome differentiation and therapeutic regimen), and completed a norming prior to use. Supplementary Material 1 shows the detailed training flow of the three groups.