CHCS - Perspectives - Summer/Fall 2014

PERSPECTIVES • SUMMER–FALL 2014 15 Recently, the subcommittee taskforce of Robin Galley, D.P.T., assistant professor and director of clinical education for physical therapy, Adrienne Lauer, Ed.D., OTL/R, assistant professor of oc- cupational therapy, and Morton Diamond, M.D., professor and medical director of the Physician Assistant Program, was formed to explore the cur- rent use of standardized patients (SP) within the College of Health Care Sciences. The commit- tee’s purpose was to investigate, report on, and ul- timately inform the dean and faculty members on what current best practice looks like in relation to SP use. Committee members researched the current use of SP within three NSU Health Professions Divi- sion colleges: Health Care Sciences, Osteopathic Medicine, and Nursing. Standardized patients, sometimes referred to as surrogates, are laypeople trained to represent a given diagnosis or problem. Medical schools have long used SPs to assess student performance by way of objective structured clinical examina- tions (OSCEs). The use of laypersons to simulate the presentation of a real patient as part of a medical instruction or evaluation began in the early 1970s. Standardized patients are routinely used to develop clinical reasoning, communica- tion, and professional skills in an authentic learn- ing environment. Across our campus, the programs most effec- tively and routinely using SPs were found to be the College of Nursing, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the College of Health Care Sci- ences’ physician assistant programs. Current litera- ture supports the use of standardized patients within the health care sciences. The literature states that students that were tested on standard- ized patients felt more prepared for their first in- ternship (Bowman, 2008). Students reported that their experience with the SPs increased their awareness of safety issues, communication issues, and handling skills (Black and Marcoux, 2002). There seems to be an overall agreement by both students and faculty members in the health profes- sion fields that some encounters cannot be talked about and instead require physical contact/manual han- dling. SP use benefits are reported to include help- ing to approximate an authentic clinical encounter, helping to develop patient rapport skills, immedi- ate feedback, and providing opportunities for in- terprofessional collaboration. As the need for well-prepared health care professionals continues to grow, the number of students needing actual contact with patients prior to clinical rotations/in- ternships in order to be best prepared for practice does as well. In order to incorporate more frequent encoun- ters between students with SPs in the College of Health Care Sciences, the committee identified some issues needing to be addressed. There are certain cost/budget implications such as • general payment range is $20 to $30 an hour per SP • additional personnel necessary to coordinate scheduling of SP encounters • possible additional space/room requirements • logistics related to satisfying need of each regional campus and weekend programs Alternatives to traditional SP use were examined as well. For example, a model described by Kelly and King (2012) called Community Patient Re- source Group was identified as an alternative to SP encounters that involves using members from the community with chronic neurological, orthopedic, and/or cardiopulmonary conditions that volunteer as patients in the classroom. References Black, B, and Marcoux, BC. (2002). Feasibility of using standardized patients in a physical therapist education program: a pilot study. Bowman, D. (2008). The use of standardized patients in the competency testing of first-year physical therapy students. Kelly, SP, and King, HJ. (2012). The Community Patient Resource Group: a novel strategy for bringing the clinic to the classroom. Best Practices Initiative By Adrienne Lauer, ed.D., OTL/R, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy BesT PRACTICes TAsKFORCe on Standardized Patients