PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITY:
A Patient Actor or Standardized Patient (SP) is a person who has been coached to accurately and consistently recreate the history, personality, physical findings, and emotional structure and response pattern of an actual patient at a particular point in time. SPs are interviewed and examined by both male and female healthcare learners and may be audio or videotaped during simulation. SPs will be trained by an assigned educator for a given case on standardized role portrayal and scoring in order to each learner with a similar experience for practice and assessment. During teaching or assessment activities SPs should expect that the learner may interview, counsel, and/or perform noninvasive physical exams. These simulated patient encounters are designed to enable experiential learning by offering learners the opportunity to develop, practice and enhance their medical interviewing skills, communication skills, and physical exam techniques.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:
Memorize a case script detailing specific emotions, behaviors, and disease signs/symptoms for presentation during simulated learning situations
Present case information in a standardized manner, as elicited by healthcare students during simulated interactive patient history and/or medical examinations
Remain in a specific patient character as trained when responding to student questions
Accurately and consistently remember encounters with students for the purpose of scoring student behaviors with standardized checklists
Maintain confidentiality of information related to cases, student behaviors, and feedback evaluations
Provides constructive verbal and written feedback within a structured format
Work in a professional manner when interacting with learners, faculty, supervisors, and peers
Accept ongoing feedback from facilitators and incorporate into case simulation
Be willing to be audio and videotaped during simulations
Adapt to quick changes and work in a dynamic environment
This role description is a general description of the essential job functions. It is not intended to describe all the duties the Standardized Patient may perform.
KEY COMPETENCIES:
Effectively and respectably communicate with other individuals, whether it be a colleague, patient, or patient’s family member and appropriately enumerate information in a manner easily understood by all parties. We do this to foster a culture of understanding between all parties, especially in complex and difficult situations, to ultimately provide the best care possible to our patients and their families.
Ability to make the most appropriate decision in a given situation and then taking the next steps to ensure appropriate and timely completion. This requires conflict resolution skills, critical thinking skills, confidence in your ability to make the right decision in most situations. This also includes ability to prioritize your workday appropriately to ensure the most important tasks are completed on time.
Having the drive to keep yourself abreast and up to date on the new breakthroughs in your area of expertise and communicating them to the rest of the team, as appropriate. This also includes keeping up with your licensure and yearly training requirements within your area expertise along with MAHEC’s organizational training. Finally, the ability to apply the depth of knowledge maintained and gained through this process in real life scenarios as appropriate.
Showing the ability to meet difficult situations with grace, professionalism, and understanding. Within your area of expertise, showing respect and showing empathy where appropriate with your colleagues, patients, and their family at all times, even when its most difficult to do so. This is done, in part, by effective listening, being your authentic self, showing responsibility and dependability, and being patient with others.
Adherence to MAHEC’s founding principles and incorporating them every day. This includes, among others, having integrity and accountability, reverence for other cultures and equitable practices, ability to manage change, and displaying a clear understanding of organizational dynamics. Doing these things creates a culture where people want to do the best for each other and gives personal ownership towards the goal of helping people in their time of need.
Having an analytical mind and ability to work autonomously to solve complex problems that may arise. The wherewithal to think logically through a difficult problem and come to an appropriate resolution for a given issue. This helps to drive continuous improvement by thinking through where we can improve in a novel way. Measures success by understanding where we are currently and where we want to go and then applying those new ideas to affect positive change.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:
Minimum Qualifications
Ability to improvise, adapt to highly dynamic environments, and learn new skills
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Good memory and recall skills
Reliable, punctual and dependable
Required Licenses
Preferred Qualifications
Acting experience is a plus but not required
Healthcare background
COMPUTER SKILLS:
SCHEDULE:
SP encounters are scheduled based on the learners’ curricular schedules. Dates are provided as far in advance as possible. Work hours will need to be flexible, on an on-call basis, in order to respond to work assignments as requested by the Medical Education Simulation Manager. Events typically run during the week, Monday-Friday, between the hours of 7:00 am – 6:00 pm. This position is PRN, as needed, only with no guaranteed weekly or monthly hours.
POSITION COMPENSATION:
$19.00/hour
At MAHEC**,** we strive to equip all team members with Total Rewards (pay + benefits) to honor their service, support their health, manage their financial security, build their career, and thrive.
All MAHEC employees and learners will be required to receive the Flu vaccine or have an approved exemption.
MAHEC Talent Management is located at 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803. Equal Opportunity Employer.
MAHEC is a qualifying employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Employees who meet federal requirements may be eligible to have remaining student loan balances forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments while working full-time at MAHEC.
If you are interested in this role, and you have related experience and qualifications, we encourage you to apply or reach out to AskTalent@mahec.net for support in your job search process. You could be the talent we are seeking for this or other opportunities.