Use of Standardized Patient Encounters in Teaching Interprofessional Team Approaches to Patient Care Planning

Monday, November 3, 2003

This presentation is part of : Curriculum Strategies

Use of Standardized Patient Encounters in Teaching Interprofessional Team Approaches to Patient Care Planning

Louise S. Jenkins, RN, PhD¹, Magaly Rodriguez De Bittner, PharmD², David B. Mallott, MD³, Kathryn Schaivone, MPA¹, Debra L. Spunt, RN, MS¹, Nicole Brandt, PharmD², Patricia E. Meehan, DDS⁴, Warren M. Morganstein, DDS⁴, and Judy M. Dalby, N/A². (1) School of Nursing, Suite 505, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA, (2) School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA, (3) School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA, (4) School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA

Learning Objective #1: Describe the use of standardized patient encounters in facilitating interprofessional communication/collaborative behaviors
Learning Objective #2: Consider the relevance of results of this project for their teaching/practice

Objective: To explore the use of videotaped standardized patient (trained patient actor - SP) encounters in teaching students interprofessional collaboration for patient care.

Design: Descriptive exploratory design.

Population: Teams of nursing, medical, pharmacy, and dental students who volunteered for the project.

Sample/Setting: Six teams of 1 student from each of the disciplines (n = 24 students)/ Clinical Education and Evaluation Laboratory.

Concept or Variables Studied: Interprofessional communication/collaborative behaviors and participation in sharing team leadership.

Method: Teams are oriented, assigned their patient (older male with prostate cancer, a middle aged woman with diabetes, or a young Asian woman with HIV), and participate in a planning meeting prior to their SP encounter where they interview their patient and begin care planning. A month later, they convene again, receive updated information on their patient, and participate in a planning conference prior to their SP encounter in which the team communicates the plan of care they have developed to the SP. Three weeks later, the written plan of care is due and a summary session is held. Videotapes of the two planning sessions and SP encounters are assessed for frequency and type of communication and evidence of collaborative behaviors. SPs score their team on aspects of sharing leadership roles after each SP encounter.

Findings: Data are analyzed to test the hypothesis that there will be significant increases in the frequency and types of communication and collaborative behaviors and SP assessment scores for sharing leadership roles.

Conclusions: We anticipate that the SP interactions will favorably impact both communication/collaborative behaviors among team members and SP assessments of sharing leadership roles. The patient care plan serves as a heuristic in exploring the impact of SP interactions in the teaching the integral skill of interprofessional communication/collaboration with the ultimate goal of improving patient care/outcomes.

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