Developing Standardized Patient Clinical Simulations to Apply Concepts of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaboration and interprofessional education (IPE) are essential for transforming health care. Students in nurse practitioner (NP) programs have limited exposure to IPE. Simulated clinical experiences, based on social learning theory, provide a safe and realistic environment to expose NP students to interdisciplinary collaboration as a step toward developing IPE. Faculty at a large university school of nursing developed a formative standardized patient experience to provide NP students with two opportunities to synthesize a patient assessment, to share patient problem-solving strategies, and to succinctly communicate with other health care professionals. This pilot project provided insight to better develop IPE and identified a growing interest to collaborate in future projects with faculty from other health care disciplines.

Effect of the Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation (DSPS) Cultural Competence Education Strategy on Nursing Students’ Transcultural Self-Efficacy Perceptions

“…The SP technique is well established as a learning and assessment tool in medical education, but it is relatively new to undergraduate and graduate nursing education (May et al, 2009;Robinson-Smith et al, 2009). Several studies in graduate nursing education demonstrate the effectiveness of SP experiences in supporting the learning of history and physical assessment skills, collaboration, differential diagnosis, clinical evaluation, and interpersonal and communication skills (Koo, Idzik, Hammersla, & Windemuth, 2013;Kowitlawakul, Chow, Salam, & Ignacio, 2015;Lin et al, 2012;Payne, 2015;Schram & Mudd, 2015). The use of SPs for teaching undergraduate nursing skills has been integrated primarily in health assessment (Luctkar-Flude, Wilson-Keates, & Larocque, 2012), nursing fundamentals (Yoo & Yoo, 2003), psychiatric nursing (Becker et al, 2006;Rentschler, Eaton, Cappiello, McNally, & McWilliam, 2007;Robinson-Smith et al, 2009;Webster, 2014), leadership and management (McIntosh, Thomas, Allen, & Edwards, 2015), and medical-surgical courses (Fink, Linnard-Palmer, Ganley,Catolico, & Phillips, 2014).…”

‘The character rests heavily within me’: drama students as standardized patients in mental health nursing education

“…In this context, the ‘partners in action’ are students from another discipline, which highlights the importance of interdisciplinary learning (Koo et al . ). During SP simulation, however, a richer quality of feedback usually manifests more during the individualized session with the nursing student directly after the simulation.…”

“…Zuber-Skerritt (2009) explains that thoughtful, frank and frequent feedback from critical friends as 'partners in action' can be extremely helpful in identifying and rectifying problems and shortfalls at an early stage. In this context, the 'partners in action' are students from another discipline, which highlights the importance of interdisciplinary learning (Koo et al 2013). During SP simulation, however, a richer quality of feedback usually manifests more during the individualized session with the nursing student directly after the simulation.…”

The Time Is Now: A Blueprint for Simulation in Dietetics Education

“…1,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Health professions educators have noted many advantages that may be realized from the use of simulations, including: reduction of risk to patients while students are acquiring professional skills 7,8,24,25 ; ability for instructors to focus on student learning rather than on actual patient care 5,26,27 ; optimization of scarce clinical education resources by reducing time in facilities and by relieving pressure on supervised practice sites 5,6,25,28 ; improved documentation of student achievement through the use of sequential checklists that are easily applied to standardized simulations 25 ; enhanced quality of patient care promoted by consistency in students' simulated experiences 5,8 ; repeatability of experiences based on student learning needs, with at least one researcher 29 noting a dose-response effect; development of situational critical thinking ability in a manner compatible with best education practice; that is, moving from simpler to more complex skills in an organized fashion to connect new learning with previous learning [30][31][32] ; ability to design team-based simulations to promote interprofessional and/or interdisciplinary communication skills 5,33,34 ; prompt debriefing of simulation experiences with learners to advance student learning 2,5,35 ; accrual of experiences and data that can potentially improve the quality of education throughout health care professions 2,5 ; development of targeted resources designed to promote achievement of designated competencies 2,5 ; and increased confidence for students, who are able to practice dealing with complex situations in a safe environment before enco...…”