![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Physician-assistant-students-by-Dan.jpg\" "\\"Physician")
<\/a>Kelly Dooley, left, and Andrea Harris created a medical interview that provides a professional stretch for both.<\/p><\/div>Even seasoned medical professionals may dread the moment when those conversations with their patients become necessary. Training helps, which is why all disciplines of medical study include interviewing classes. Optimum realism is provided by standardized patients: individuals trained to simulate symptoms or issues likely to be encountered in actual clinical settings. <\/p>\n
At UT, physician assistant students have been finding those simulations intense, challenging \u2014 and a surprising amount of fun \u2014 thanks to an interdisciplinary collaboration between the College of Medicine and Life Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.<\/p>\n
The result is a professional encounter between students of Dr. Vivian Moynihan, assistant professor of physician assistant studies, and those of Irene Alby, associate lecturer of theatre. The physician assistant students are enrolled in Moynihan\u2019s Principles of Interviewing and Medical History class; the theatre students provide the syndromes, symptoms, concerns, questions and sometimes feisty opinions of the standardized patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theatre students\u2019 participation have made the course almost entirely experiential, which a medical interviewing course needs to be,\u201d Moynihan said. In a team approach, two physician assistant students conduct the interview, two others serve as peer evaluators; at the next interview, roles are reversed.<\/p>\n
The most challenging interviews \u2014 those involving a patient\u2019s sexual history, for instance, or ones conveying a negative medical outcome \u2014 are included. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to practice such situations in a safe environment,\u201d Moynihan said. \u201cThe teams didn\u2019t know what the bad news would be until they walked in the door, then it was changed when the teams flipped. That allowed a wide range of emotions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe theatre students did not make it easy for the physician assistant students \u2014 and physician assistant students thought it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Physician assistant student Kelly Dooley recalled the unexpected realism when an actor played it angry: \u201cI don\u2019t know what came over me. I held it together during the interview, but afterwards I started crying because I was unprepared for that kind of emotion. It\u2019s not you, it\u2019s just that patients can be feeling bad, not in a great mood. It was awesome, working on communicating with them.\u201d <\/p>\n
From Alby\u2019s perspective, the class is an opportunity for actors to hone their craft: \u201cThe use of standardized patients \u2014 and in other fields, mock trials and business simulations \u2014 are real ways that actors can find work.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Moynihan initially called with the idea, Alby said, the two immediately connected: \u201cWe decided we had to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theatre students who participated in spring semester, she added, began by providing backstories for the medical scenarios Moynihan had created. \u201cWhen you play a hostile patient, an actor wants to know the reason for the hostility,\u201d Alby explained. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was to be as honest as possible. Acting is always about reality, but there are different styles of acting \u2014 some with heightened reality, some that are funny. In this case, the students had to be absolutely real without any of the craft showing. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, real can be pretty extreme, but there had to be the sense each interview was reality, happening at that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moynihan, who previously had relied on second-year physician assistant students to serve in the roles, praised both the increased realism and the intensity of the experience for both groups of students in the class, which will next be offered fall semester. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe sense was that this was real,\u201d she said. \u201cThe physician assistant students really valued the upperclassmen helping, but they\u2019d act with an eye toward the medical technicalities. With the theatre students, it\u2019s much more like a real patient interview.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see [the physician assistant students] nail something the second time that they\u2019d missed the first time, or becoming more humanized rather than completely medical,\u201d said Andrea Harris, a theatre\/film major who participated. \u201cAnd as actors, we were being challenged, growing in our characters. In one case, I had to find ways to portray pain I had never felt. There was a lot of improv in what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alby, who has developed a theatre course devoted to standardized patient service, speaks for all actors when she exulted, \u201cFinally, there\u2019s an understanding that the type of skills we have are compatible with a field that on the surface seems so different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UT theatre students are practicing their craft and helping physician assistant students learn how to talk to patients in the Principles of Interviewing and Medical History class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}