T​he Breadth and Depth of Standardized Patients in the Teaching and Assessment of Clinical Skills

Presented by Gayle Gliva, PhD, Carrie Bohnert, MPA, Heidi Lane, PhD on September 29, 2016 at 12:00 pm

Over the past five decades Standardized Patient methodology has evolved from its roots in teaching and assessing proficiency in communicating with patients. Standardized Patients (SPS) now perform a variety of roles in medical and non-medical education from undergraduate learning to licensure examinations to continuing education. In this presentation, we will use a non-traditional definition of Standardized Patients (SPs): “individuals who are trained to perform in a role in a standardized and repeatable way where presentation varies based only on learner performance. SPs are used for teaching and assessment of learners in a broad range of skills in simulated environments. SPs are trained to facilitate learning, provide feedback and evaluate learner performance.” Three institutions (Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the University of Louisville) are represented in this presentation. Discussions will encompass the traditional and evidence-based ways SPs are integrated into medical curriculums for teaching and assessing clinical skills, and widening the lens to include teaching and assessment of skills that are historically taught by clinicians, as a solution for clinical teaching when clinician time is challenging. We will also present innovative uses of the SP methodology to challenge our audience’s imagination.

Seminar Archive

Presenter Bios

Gayle Gliva-McConvey has been the Director of Professional Skills teaching and Assessment at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) since its inception in 1993. For over 43 years she has developed and integrated the Standardized Patient (SP) methodology in clinical skills assessment and training. In 1973, as the first non-physician SP Educator, she managed the first Standardized Patient Program at McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

She has over 20 publications on Standardized Patients and has presented at over 160 conferences, lectures or workshops internationally. She served as consultant to the China Medical Board, the three medical schools in Puerto Rico and the National University of Singapore and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Uzhgorod University Clinic in Moldova, as part of post-soviet medical education restructuring.

In 1998 she received the first annual award from the American Association of Medical Colleges recognizing her contributions in the field of Standardized Patient Educators. She is a founding board member of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) and the first Chair of the Committee for developing Standards of Practice. She represented ASPE on the Simulation Inventory Advisory Committee with AAMC and the Society of Simulation in Healthcare (SSH). She was on the SSH certification committee’s executive committee and on the test development sub-committee developing certification for Simulation Specialists. She served on the SSH Terminology committee which developed the Healthcare Simulation Dictionary. She is a reviewer for SSiH Journal.

In 2012 – 2014 she served as ASPE President-Elect, President and Past President and Membership Committee Chair 2014 to 2015.

Carrie Bohnert, MPA, serves as director of the Standardized Patient Program at the University of Louisville. For U of L, Ms. Bohnert has implemented rigorous quality control measures, expanded use of the program, presented at international conferences, and published in Academic Medicine.

Ms. Bohnert serves as the Vice President for Operations for the Association of Standardized Patient Educators. In 2013, she was invited to serve on the organization’s President’s Task Force for Standards of Practice, and in 2014, she received ASPE’s Outstanding Emerging Leader Award.

Highlights of Ms. Bohnert’s previous work assignments include training high school students to produce a radio show, shepherding two hundred high school students through a three-week intensive arts program, and coaching teachers to engage their students in science learning. She is a classically trained singer who loves Mozart and Handel.

Dr. Lane is the Senior Director of Clinical Skills Assessment & Education at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) with over 20 years of experience in SP methodology. She earned her doctorate in Leadership in Higher Education at East Carolina University (ECU). Dr. Lane was a member of the task force on standardized patients and case development with the National Board of Medical Examiners, collaborating on research and development of the USMLE Step 2 C S. She is past Chair of the Standards of Practice Committee in the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE). In 2007 she received the ASPE coveted Outstanding Educator Award.

While at ECU, she began collaboration with Kazan State Medical University in Kazan Russia, to open the first clinical skills laboratory in the Russian Federation. This 17 year collaboration continues with Dr. Lane in her role at VTCSOM. In 2013, Dr. Lane was awarded the title of Privat Docent from Kazan State Medical University (KSMU) for her role introducing SP methodology to medical education in Russia. Russia has now initiated plans for using standardized patients in assessing medical, dental and pharmacy students for certification.