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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Linda M. Long-Bellil, JD, MA¹, Paul Kahn, MEd¹, Wayne Altman, MD¹, Libby Bradshaw, DO¹, Paula Minihan, PhD², Sonya Perduta-Fulginiti, RN, MS, CRRN¹, Karen Dempsey, BA¹, Lillian Johnson², Robert Sneirson, BA², and Jeanette Ector². (1) Department of Public Health & Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Tufts University, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111, 617-686-3054, llongbellil@yahoo.com, (2) Department of Public Health & Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Tufts University, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111

This presentation will report the results of an investigation into the use of a teaching method utilizing the services of standardized patient educators (SPEs) with disabilities to address medical students' attitudes toward persons with disabilities and to help students better understand and address these individuals' medical needs. This SPE curriculum has been offered for the last four years as part of a required Family Medicine clerkship. The use of standardized patients, individuals trained to act out the role of a patient in a standard manner in a simulated medical interview, is a well-accepted approach to teaching medical students about “the human interaction aspects of doctor-patient encounters.” (RCSA 1993). The presentation will describe the SPE program and its impact on both the medical students and the standardized patient educators, as reflected in the findings from six focus groups conducted with 3rd and 4th year medical students who underwent the curriculum and a separate focus group with the SPEs comprised of all six individuals with disabilities who routinely play that role. Findings from the student focus groups will focus on their attitudes, their experiences with persons with disabilities, generally, and with the SPE curriculum, specifically. Findings from the SPE focus group will reflect their experiences and responses to the students and the curriculum. The discussion will be co-presented by one of the co-creators of the curriculum and one of the standardized patient educators and will demonstrate lessons learned from this particular intervention.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the attitudes and experiences that medical students may bring to the clinical encounter with a person with a disability.
• Describe the potential impact of a standardized patient educator curriculum on medical students’ attitudes and their overall response to the experience.
• Analyze the experience of being a standardized patient educator from the perspective of individuals with disabilities playing out that role.
• Identify the steps necessary to devise and implement a similar standardized patient educator curriculum.

Keywords: Education, Disability Studies

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation