Skillman and Johansson present on training standardized patients for dementia care

Nita Skillman, client and simulated patient coordinator, and Charity Johansson, professor of physical therapy education, recently presented a workshop at the annual conference of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators. 

In the session, titled “Advanced Training of Standardized Patients for Dementia Care, Skillman and Johansson shared the training system they developed to address the unique challenges of preparing standardized patients (SPs) to portray patients with dementia.

The system consists of in-depth education on the anatomy and physiology of dementia, role-playing effective ways to approach a person with dementia, and the use of training videos featuring a dementia care specialist. Participants were provided with a fully developed SP case from Dr. Johansson’s Geriatric Health and Wellness course in the DPT curriculum.

Skillman and Johansson coached participants in building progressively challenging cases and adapting the case to other professional settings, and shared results from a study they conducted on the effectiveness of including SP activities on DPT students’ perceived abilities to work effectively with patients with dementia.