How SPs Can Expand Diverse Patient Encounters Beyond Clinical Rotations

Clinical rotations are a powerful way to extend learning beyond the classroom, immersing students in the real world with all its rich diversity. By encountering a wide range of clinical and patient experiences, students gain invaluable insights into the complexities of healthcare and a chance to “test-run” where they’d prefer to specialize post-graduation.

But is this level of diversity – focused mainly on the clinical level – enough? 

Diversity on a human level is just as important to students’ educational experience, as a lack of awareness and representation in various demographics can lead to conscious and unconscious bias that affects communication and patient outcomes.

For faculty members who face the challenge of providing students with diverse clinical training, standardized patients (SPs) can provide learners a decisive advantage in knowledge about diverse patient populations. By expanding diversity beyond the exposure during clinical rotations, learners can gain experience caring for various patient demographics and ultimately provide holistic care.

Why Are Diverse Patient Encounters Important?

Cultural competencies are a vital part of patient care in medical education, as statistics show that non-white patients fare worse than white patients in receiving healthcare coverage. Emphasizing diversity and cultural competencies leads to better patient outcomes, reduced disparities, and improved access to medical care. 

Student exposure to diverse populations is essential in medical education programs; otherwise, medical professionals are unprepared for face-to-face encounters with patients of different backgrounds. Practicing effective communication, rooted in self-awareness and empathy, is essential for providing compassionate and inclusive care. This includes understanding and respecting a patient’s cultural, economic, and social background, encompassing race, gender, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation.

Recognizing diverse demographics helps learners see how racial disparities affect medical plans and patient care. Addressing these issues builds trust, strengthens patient-provider relationships, and improves patient outcomes.

Cultural humility is vital for self-reflection and learning about different cultures and social identities. By adopting inclusive care practices, healthcare providers can more effectively deliver compassionate care to diverse populations.

Unfortunately, there’s a lack of curriculums that address the unique needs of disadvantaged populations, such as the LGBTQ+ community. SPs represent an opportunity to integrate necessary elements of DEI in medical education in an organic, impactful way beyond simply checking the box.

Enhancing Diversity with SPs

Clinical rotations are a powerful opportunity to expose students to clinical diversity – namely, different healthcare disciplines, clinical standards of care, and real-life patient cases. While it’s not the main goal, they may also offer opportunities for diverse patient demographics if the student’s rotations bring them to diverse populations around the country. Some programs may even require that at least one rotation be held in a rural or low-income area.

That said, many students request rotations close to their home or school. As a result, most or all of their rotations take place within the same state – if not also the same city – limiting the amount of human diversity they’re exposed to. As far as requirements for a rural medicine rotation, institutions may be lenient due to a limited pool of available rural preceptors. 

Integrating SPs into clinical training can mitigate these limitations. For example, by removing geographic barriers via remote encounters, students can easily interact with patients of diverse backgrounds. This solution gives the student the advantage of gaining cultural experiences and practicing inclusive care with patient populations outside their immediate location.

Encounters with human SPs of lived experience bring authenticity and emotional intelligence that cannot be replicated by virtual reality avatars, AI, or roleplay. Since standardized patients are actors, they’re better equipped to emulate actual patients with specific health conditions while layering in diverse scenarios that may include cultural background, sexual orientation, religion, age, and gender disparities. This human element that SPs bring to medical stimulations is essential in preparing learners for patient engagement and treatment and adapting them to various demographic populations within healthcare.

Furthermore, SPs can provide insightful, actionable feedback on cultural competencies. During a standard evaluation, SPs can offer learners verbal insight into their strengths and weaknesses – especially around their soft skills from the “patient” perspective. Feedback gives students the experience during patient-provider interviews, strengthening their communication skills by applying real-life examples to develop sensitivity awareness. 

Standardized Patients: Making a Difference in Healthcare

Embedding cultural competencies in healthcare training allows learners to develop clinical skills alongside advanced communication and cultural humility. Scenarios can cover specific patient care needs, such as cancer screenings, wellness checks, and mental health that emphasize both medical skills and human emotional and cultural experiences. This guides students and learners in effective communication with diverse patient populations, fostering a holistic, patient-centered approach.

SPs can also leverage digital platforms to provide real-time, human-to-human experiences, making remote learning efficient and accessible. This method enhances learners’ clinical and cultural skills without the need to travel or schedule strict time blocks within a hectic workday.