The Standardized Patients Podcast

Katie Culligan, Catherine Bobalek
The Standardized Patients Podcast

Step into the world of Standardized Patients! (AKA an actor paid to portray various illnesses to help teach and train medical students.) Join professional actor and standardized patient, Katie Culligan, and dive into the who, what, why, and huh of this quirky industry that no one's ever heard of. Follow this “enter-cational” comedy journey every other Monday.

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  1. EPISODE 12

    EP.12: A Day in SP Life - A “Normal” Day

    We’re back for Season 2 of The Standardized Patient Podcast! This week we discuss the big question - what does an SP do every day? Joined by guest Jon Reynolds we talk about what a day in the life of an SP looks like and why there is no such thing as a “normal” SP routine. Jon Reynolds (he/him) is an actor, deviser, designer, and playwright from Washington DC. He can be heard in We Happy Few's horror audioplay series A Midnight Dreary, The Tell Tale Heart; and also as Sherlock Holmes in We Happy Few's The Adventure of the Dancing Men and The Norwood Builder. On the DC stages he was last seen in Ada and the Engine (Avant Bard Theatre), Visions of Love (Pointless Theatre Co.), Pericles (We Happy Few), and Mnemonic (Theater Alliance). Other DC area credits include Beertown, A Killing Game, Courage, and Toast (dog & pony dc), Perfect Arrangement (Source), The Winter's Tale, As You Like It, and The Second Shepherds' Play (Folger Theatre), and Romeo & Juliet (The Shakespeare Theatre Company). Jon is a graduate of McDaniel College, MD. Insatgram | @actorreynolds Jon will be performing in Loveday Brooke in The Mystery of the Black Bag, a live radioplay from We Happy Few on January 28th. Checkout www.wehappyfewdc.com/lovedaylive for more details.

    31 min

  2. EPISODE 13

    EP.13: SP & Roleplay Work Across the US

    We talk about about SP work in the DMV, about what about other parts of the US? Is everywhere there’s SP’s for the just traditional university medical work? Today we explore these questions with guest Aviva Pressman as she shares with us stories from her wide range of experience as an SP and roleplay actor.Aviva Pressman (she/they) has been working as a standardized patient, standardized patient trainer, physical exam training associate, lactation skills training associate and gynecological training associate for over 10 years. The day she had to have her taint painted with scars by a professional make-up artist was the day she knew she’d made it in this business. Insatgram | @avivaisapalindromeWebsite | https://www.avivapressman.comTikTok: @theveeversYou can purchase Aviva’s one-woman show Deadlift hereAviva will be performing in Cinderella at Musical Theatre West until December 18 You can find her next performing in the absurdly-long titled  A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT THE MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY

    37 min

  3. EPISODE 14

    EP.14: What is a Case?

    We’re back to basics this week, asking: what is a Case? And why do Standardized Patients need them? Joined by guest Jennifer Brown we talk about SP Cases and how they are the DNA for all Standardized Patient work, along with chatting about the good, the bad, and the ugliest of them *wa wa waaaah*Jennifer Brown has been an SP for about a decade now, and a PETA (Physical Exam Teaching Associate) for almost as long. She came to this work when falling back on her theater undergrad degree after leaving the practice of law. She loves the dynamic nature of the work and the positive energy of being surrounded by both medical students and creative colleagues. She does not love how often our call time is as early as 7am. Instagram | @jenniferbrown100

    38 min

  4. EPISODE 15

    EP.15: SP & Author

    This week we chat with guest Pat Beaven, SP and Author of FAKE PATIENT and learn about her book, the first (non-technical!) written work about Standardized Patients.Pat Beaven is a writer, educator, and actor living in Toronto, Canada. After teaching with the school board for sixteen years, she left because there were so many other paths she wanted to explore. She has worked in television, film, and radio, and has acted on stage in regional and dinner theatre across the country. Discovering SP work eighteen years ago has allowed her to blend her teaching and acting background; Pat loves the variety of the work and enjoys the roles she plays as a medical, physiotherapy, psychiatry, pharmacy, and social work patient or client. Sharing those experiences in her third book, FAKE PATIENT, has been a joy. Look out for Pat’s upcoming audio voiceover projects this spring and her fourth book, a memoir early this summer! FAKE PATIENT can be purchased on Pat’s website Instagram | @itspatbeaven Website | https://www.patbeaven.com/

    27 min

  5. EPISODE 16

    EP.16: Feedback Workshop

    Matthew Sparacino and returning guest & ‘Feedback Godfather’ Tom Wyatt help us out with something new and experimental (ooh) in this week’s episode where we conduct a Feedback Workshop. Through a roleplay SP Encounter and Student/SP feedback sessions with Matt & Katie, Tom helps us workshop SP feedback skills from beginner to advanced. We discuss why getting feedback correct is important in an education roleplay setting, and the value of doing it effectively and correctly. Tom Wyatt has worked professionally as an actor since age 16, and a director / choreographer since college, his skill set transitioned happily into performing and training SP's working with medical students on their interpersonal skills. For the past 25 years, his life has been a joyous combination of working in the theatre, and also being a fixture in the several local Medical School SP programs. Matthew Sparacino (he/him) is an actor, theatre artist, writer, and educator with over a decade of experience across a broad spectrum of disciplines. A DMV native and lifelong resident, he has performed onstage in dozens of productions, including world premieres, devised works, puppet shows, silent pieces, classics and contemporary plays.  Matt has also worked for many years as a teaching associate and standardized patient at several of the area’s top medical schools, where he coaches students on communication, interpersonal skills, bedside manner and physical diagnosis.  www.matthewsparacino.com Matt will be performing in ‘Iphigenia’, a modern adaptation of the Greek myth written by our good SP friend Kerry McGee and produced by We Happy Few.  The show is running at CHAW from May 24-June 17. Instagram | @matty.cino Website | www.matthewsparacino.com

    55 min

  6. EPISODE 17

    EP.17: SP & Experiential Learning Leadership

    We’ve talked to SPs, we’ve talked to PETAs, and even trainers SP Trainers but today we go one step further into the chain of learning - dun dun dunnnnn! This week we talk to Guest Mary Donovan the Assistant Dean for Standardized Patients & Experiential Learning at Georgetown University. We discuss with Mary her career journey, just what a Dean does for a SIM Center, and dive deeper into the genesis of SP Cases. Mary Donovan is the Assistant Dean for Standardized Patients & Experiential Learning.  She has served at Georgetown as administrative director and educator for the Integrated Learning Center since 2007, providing SOM students with clinical learning and assessment opportunities through the methodologies of SP education and simulation.  Prior to Georgetown, she served as faculty instructor and senior SP trainer at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and academic-affairs staff at Johns Hopkins Medical School.  Prior to her work in med-ed experiential learning, she managed a forum of women in international trade and diplomacy, taught as adjunct faculty on Georgetown’s main campus in the mid-90s, served as marketing manager for a B2B organization, and as chapter liaison for a national trade association. In the early days of online journal search and retrieval, she worked as a researcher at the National Library of Medicine, Library of Congress and other libraries. While in college and beyond, she worked for the UVa Hospital Education system, teaching children from birth to age 21.Mary presented (virtually) at the Ottawa Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a finalist for the IMU-RHIME Award for Innovation in March of 2020, and won an innovation award for her presentation at the international Association for Standardized Patient Educators in 2011. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Health Design, based in Melbourne, Australia.  From 2016-18 she served as Chair for the Mid-Atlantic Consortium of med-school clinical-skills programs.  In 2016, GUMC honored her as a “bridge-builder” in the Ongoing Engagement and Consultation initiative. In June of 2023, she will co-present a session on challenges for med-students with disabilities at the International Association of Medical Science Educators' annual conference. She received her BA in English from University of Virginia, MA in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University and MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Mary recently portrayed a palliative-care doctor in an in-house NIH training video for palliative fellows (along with some familiar SP talents). She is thrilled to have become a Great-Aunt Mary a few weeks ago, to twins Arthur and Eva in Louisville.  Please check out Mary’s blog Muffin, None the Wiser she started during the pandemic! Instagram | @maryfdonz Facebook | Mary Donovan LinkedIn | Mary Donovan Blog: Muffin, None the Wiser | https://www.marymuffindonovan.com/

    32 min

  7. EPISODE 18

    EP.18: Roles Against Type & Age

    Medical programs work hard to expose their students to a wide range of situations and patients in order to help prepare them for the real medical world - but what happens when there isn’t quite as wide a range of SPs to portray those cases? This week Guest Andrew Flurer talks with us about those times he’s had to perform an encounter that’s not believably in his age range (aka + or - 20 years, give or take) and how he channels Patients living through scenarios unlike what he’s experienced in life. Andrew Flurer is now in his third and final year of his master’s program in clinical mental health counseling. After getting bachelor’s degrees in Theatre and Chemistry, Andrew worked as an actor in the DC area for a number of years. During this time, he started working as an SP at numerous local universities, and has now been an SP for almost 8 years! SP experience includes teaching physical exams, teaching genitourinary exams (GUTA), mass casualty and emergency response scenarios, and trauma-informed role-plays with social workers. His hobbies include cooking, pole dancing, lifting weights, and playing his Nintendo Switch.

    35 min

  8. EPISODE 19

    EP.19: SP Trainer & Leadership Development

    We all know that great leaders and mentors lift us and our work up to another level, but in the SP world how do they get there, and what makes a great one? This we talk with Guest Erin Whalen on her journey from SP to SP Trainer, how she developed her leadership style, and how all her experiences eventually aligned that led to the creation of her business. Erin Whalen has been a professional role player since 2006, as well as a Standardized Patient since 2009, primarily at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She has been offered multiple training and facilitating opportunities at GW over the course of those 13 years, including developing and facilitating Communication Skills Workshops for medical students and training SPs for highly-emotional cases. In 2020, she founded her company, Compassionate Coaching, whose mission is to restore dignity to the grieving and the dying, and to help them feel seen and heard, by filling the cups of, and providing communication skills to, those who serve them.  Instagram | @erin_compassionatecoachingLinkedIn | Erin Whalen Compassionate Coaching Learn more about Erin’s company Compassionate Coaching here Erin & Compassionate Coaching have the following upcoming events!Tu, 4/25 - Presenting Live Education Session “How Have You Have Been Cared For?” at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s IDC 2023 Tu, 5/16 - Featured in Pro Aging Community's Webinar "How Can Role Playing and Playback Theatre Help Senior Living?"

    27 min
See All Season 2 (15)

    About

    Step into the world of Standardized Patients! (AKA an actor paid to portray various illnesses to help teach and train medical students.) Join professional actor and standardized patient, Katie Culligan, and dive into the who, what, why, and huh of this quirky industry that no one's ever heard of. Follow this “enter-cational” comedy journey every other Monday.

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