About the program:
Finding no other nursing program in Florida that provided the SPSL, the faculty adapted the model used at the University of Maryland. Faculty visited the Maryland School of Nursing to learn firsthand about the challenges of simulation with standardized patients (SP's).  Standardized patients are live actors trained to portray specific roles in clinical scenarios or to present a real medical condition required for the students' simulated learning experience.   In Summer 2005, faculty used Succeed Florida-Nursing Grant funds to begin writing scenarios, train SP's and organize a steering committee.  The committee is composed of two local physicians with experience in medical education (the originator of simulation labs like SPSL) and other nursing faculty members.  OWC nursing graduates, faculty and family members, and hospital nurses and nurse managers participated as actors in the first SPSL in Spring 2006.  During each SPSL session, fourth semester students rotated through multiple learning stations where they were required to interact with and assess "patients," call "physicians" with pertinent assessment findings, receive and transcribe telephone orders from "physicians," prioritize care, and/or communicate therapeutically with anxious or distraught "family members."  The scenario content was chosen based on specific goals developed by the faculty to meet identified learning needs and to ensure uniform exposure to key clinical situations for all students.
Results from standardized testing utilized by the OWC program were analyzed to help determine specific learning needs.   Subsequent testing after SPSL sessions showed improved critical thinking and therapeutic communication skills.  In addition, all fourth semester students passed the standardized exit examination and successfully graduated from the OWC nursing program.
The SPSL project was selected for presentation at the Education Summit in June 2006.  The OWC faculty were honored to share their experiences with a room crowded with AD nursing program colleagues, eager to hear about the innovation; responses from the attendees were overwhelmingly positive.   OWC faculty returned for the Fall 2006 term determined to expand the project to include additional communication scenarios, such as addressing suicide prevention, a growing need in the Florida Panhandle.   Always seeking to enhance psychiatric/mental health clinical experiences, the faculty developed some scenarios to address problems commonly encountered.  An OWC Collegiate High School student served as the SP, a teen who was hospitalized for an eating disorder & depression.  During the scenario, she verbalized suicidal ideations, requiring the students to communicate therapeutically with her as they explored those feelings.  In another scenario, the SP depicted an RN struggling with substance abuse.
Responses from students and graduates continue to encourage the faculty to offer this innovative approach to clinical instruction and evaluation in all nursing clinical courses.  The powerful (and sometimes emotional) participants' responses have cemented the faculty's resolve to make the SPSL a way of life at OWC.  Future students, graduates and employers can only benefit from the effort.