Standardized Patient | Student Employment

Job Title – Standardized Patient

Purpose of Job

A Standardized Patient is an individual who is trained to portray a pretend patient for students being educated in the Health Sciences.  A Standardized Patient provides the opportunity for Health Science students to practice varying real-world skills such as: medical history taking, communication, building patient rapport, treatment planning etc.

Carroll University students who serve as Standardized Patients will undergo a four-week training program at the beginning of each semester.  This training is designed to serve the needs of specific Behavioral Health and Health Science classes that will partner with the Standardized Patients for the semester. The mandatory training will be approximately 2-3 hours a week for the first 4 weeks of the semester. During the training period, the student workers will create and/or develop their SP character(s) they will portray for their assigned Behavioral Health and Health Science classes.  (Often, they will be “everyday people with everyday problems.”) They will also develop improvisation skills to be adaptable during simulated sessions. During training, they will memorize the relevant personal and medical history of their fictional Standardized Patient(s) to portray them in a consistent manner during sessions.

Starting in Week 4 or 5 of each semester, the SP’s will meet with their assigned Behavioral Health and/or Health Science student(s) and portray their SP in varying simulated clinical situations.  These mock-sessions will often be virtual and will be independently scheduled by the SP and their assigned student(s), based on mutual availability.  Sometimes the needs of the Health Science class dictates that the simulations be done in person. The SP will participate in these in-person simulations as assigned and will be given the opportunity to consent to all assignments. Due to demand, the SP will most likely be partnered with multiple classes.  In some cases, the student worker may need to portray 2-3 different Standardized Patients throughout the semester.  Hours worked each week will vary based on assignments and will often not exceed 5 hours per week.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Maintain a professional and positive attitude when working with faculty, students, and peers
  • Read and respond to emails in a timely fashion
  • Reliably and independently schedule and attend required sessions with your assigned student(s)
  • Be prepared for each session 

Job Qualifications

  • Willingness to learn about various performance techniques and subject-matter necessary for successful partnership with areas of study requesting SPs (Behavioral Health, Nursing, AT, PT, OT, Music Therapy, etc.)
  • Strong Active Listening skills
  • Ability to offer and receive constructive feedback
  • Strong time management skills
  • Strong memorization skills
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills
  • Previous Acting/Improvisation classes or experience is a plus but not required
  • Comfort and ability to work both on-camera or in-person

Supervisor(s)

Panoramic View of campus