Avkin’s AvMentor program helps healthcare simulation programs develop or expand a Standardized Patient program. From budgetary concerns to derailing the simulation to commitment level, Avkin has experienced all of the challenges that come with Standardized Patients and will help the program overcome or skip right past these obstacles. Avkin experts know the correct path to a highly reliable and budget friendly Standardized Patient Program. Amy Cowperthwait CHSE-A and Megan Weldon CHSE will be the mentors during the 12-month program, and will answer questions and offer practical month to month advice on all things Standardized Patient. This HealthySimulation.com article by Jenna Bohr furthers our understanding of working with Avkin for standardized patient program development with AvMentor.
As the co-founder and CEO of Avkin, Amy Cowperthwait was inspired to work with Standardized Patients before the company was even a consideration. While working in the simulation lab one day, the focus was a tracheostomy simulation deploying a mannikin as the simulation modality. As the simulation commenced, the nursing students quickly realized that the patient was not responding to them. Instead of concluding that the patient was non-verbal and finding a different way to communicate with them, the students started chest compressions. Amy sat in the control room wondering how the students got to chest compressions when the patient just needed to be suctioned. She continued to ponder where the critical thinking gap in this simulation occurred.
With the realization that a human element (non-verbals, eye contact, human emotions) could have changed the students’ response to the situation, Amy started to ponder how she could bring this vision to reality. At this point in her simulation career, she had already created a program called Healthcare Theater, where Standardized Patients participated in mental health and psych simulations. Could a wearable overlay combined with Standardized Patients provide the appropriate environmental fidelity for recognition of a non-verbal tracheostomy patient and the critical thinking necessary for her students to take the next step in that very same simulation? A short time later, Avkin was born. Avkin’s sensor-enabled, wearable simulators use haptic feedback to enable a new class of healthcare simulation equipment that teaches both the art (soft skills) and science (hard skills) required from healthcare providers .
While the wearable simulators are a phenomenal invention, Avkin’s primary mission and vision is to ensure that simulationists can develop their standardized patient programs to stand the test of time and turnover. To do this, Avkin specializes in the deployment and integration of Standards of Best Practice as it relates to Standardized Patient methodology.
View the HealthySimulation.com Free Webinar Is Clinical Simulation Moving Into a Post Plastic Era with Wearable Simulators? to learn more about working with Standardized Patients!
AvMentor is a consultative partnership to build (or grow) a Standardized Patient Program that involves a 12-month mentorship with a one-day on-site intensive. Each month, the assigned Avkin expert will meet with the assigned institution to offer comprehensive training, support, and advice. The monthly sessions offer step-by-step presentations to help the program throughout their journey. Each program will have one-on-one attention from the assigned mentor to ask questions and request resources. Several of the current clients of AvMentor are Miami University (Ohio), Northern Arizona University, Sam Houston State University, and San Jose State University.
All of the presentations are rooted in ASPE Standards of Best Practice and their underlying values of safety, quality, professionalism, accountability, and collaboration. These are organized into five domains: a safe work environment, case development, Standardized Patient training for role portrayal, feedback, completion of assessment instruments, program management, and professional development.
Kim Leighton, PhD, RN, CHSOS, CHSE-A, ANEF, FSSH, FAAN noted “the balanced approach to instruction on best practices and hands-on group learning activities was engaging and left our educators requesting more opportunities to learn from the Avkin team.”
Countless institutions have found lasting success after working with Avkin. Northern Arizona University (NAU) recently launched their Standardized Patient Program. Taylor Porter, a third-semester nursing student at NAU noted the practice of psycho-social care as, “one of the most important skills a nurse can have” and was grateful for the opportunities provided through the Standardized Patient Program to practice these skills.
For those interested in formalizing their Standardized Patient Program, AvMentor was built for your institution. The Avkin website dives deeper on the logistics of the AvMentor provided and if more information is needed, provides easy access to our contact form. We look forward to working with all interested institutions soon.
More About Avkin
Avkin is the leader in developing and manufacturing wearable simulators for healthcare simulations. Avkin also focuses on consulting with Standardized Patient Programs and offering support to institutions to grow and flourish their own strategic program. Avkin’s CEO is a simulationist that built her Standardized Patient Program from the ground up. Avkin is the one stop shop for everything Standardized Patient.
Avkin provides a simulation solution that combines the best of high-fidelity mannequins and the realism of Standardized Patients for the most authentic healthcare simulation experience possible. The company believes that the key to success in patient-centered care is practitioner training through realistic healthcare simulations and that human interaction is irreplaceable in clinical education.
