I just purchased a 'Scotty' yesterday for this exact reason. I plan to spend time working with my wife until she feels comfortable turning the boat around and coming back for me! (This should also remind me not to yell on the boat ;-) ) I took a CYA course last year and we spent a good portion of time running MOB drills. The instructor would sit on the pushpit and at any given moment would release the MOB pole. It was an excellent way to practice single-handed control of the boat as well as staying calm in a crisis. We 'passed' if we could bring the boat back to a full stop next to the pole, without hitting it. I found this on wikipedia which is the exact drill we used to do.
Man overboard rescue turn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I highly recommend it!