List at least two advantages and two disadvantages of the mystery client (or simulated client) method:

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Advantages include: Record unselfconscious provider behavior from the client’s perspective, thus avoiding bias; Measures actual provider behavior and practices; Useful for assessing and improving quality of services; Can gather enough observations even if the actual volume of clients is low; Practical. Disadvantages: Involves misrepresentation; Recruitment may be difficult in small communities where the mystery client may be recognized by the staff; Dependent on mystery client recall; Need methods to increase reliability between mystery clients such as thorough training, clear criteria on rating, or MC providing explanations for ratings; Difficult to generalize to health problems or symptoms outside the MC scenarios.