Use of Standardized Patient Actors to Evaluate RN-BS Students ’Attainment of Health Assessment Skills

Registered nurses returning to school to advance their education, run the gamut from new graduates to well-experienced-from novice to expert. The challenge in many BSN completion programs is to integrate multiple levels of learner experience yet still offer opportunity for growth and development. Health Assessment, an increasingly important competency for nurses to possess, is typically offered as initial course in RN to BSN programs, and encompasses more than just physical assessment. Equally challenging is finding appropriate ways for registered nurse students to demonstrate competency in this area.

A unique solution identified by one RN to BSN program was to employ the use of Standardized Patients (SP) for an end of course Simulation in Clinical Health Assessment. Although used regularly in medical education, use of SPs in nursing education has been limited.

In this pilot project, a convenience sample of 60 registered nurse students participated in two randomly assigned SP encounters. Cases were developed in conjunction with nurse faculty clinical experts, an SP trainer and validated with SP actors experienced in this style of medical education. Students received feedback from the SPs on their communication, empathy and quality of health teaching skills.

Sessions were recorded for evaluation by faculty of students ’examination skills, ability to address health issue, and accuracy of health teaching. To ensure the rigor of the evaluation, inter-rater reliability by three faculty was established with the use of the Creighton Competency simulation Evaluation of Instrument. Student evaluation of the positive benefit of the experience exceeded expectations.