Barbara Doyer Awarded $124,513 from State to Enhance Nursing Training
The State of California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development has awarded Barbara Doyer, lecturer in Nursing, $124,513 for her program “Standardized Patients in the BSN Health Assessment Courses.” The grant will build on a pilot program in the School of Nursing, initiated in 2016, to expand the use of Standardized Patients — actors who are trained to represent patients during a clinical encounter with a health care provider. “With the utilization of standardized patients, students not only interact and communicate with a real person, but they also can receive feedback during the encounter,” explains Doyer.
In the pilot program, volunteer community members were trained as standardized patients and engaged with BSN students in one entry-level Health Assessment course. Instructors noticed that the students displayed increasing confidence in their interviewing skills and attaining health information. They were also able to develop their “touch with a purpose” in examining a “real person.”
Expanding the School of Nursing’s Standardized Patients program will allow an increase in the number of student encounters with live patients in both their Health Assessment and Simulation classes. Using these two different learning modalities may enhance the students’ experiences, potentially allowing for a safer practitioner prior to the patient encounter.
