Standardized patients are essential to the hands-on, innovative educational experience for Frontier Nursing University (FNU) students. Standardized patients portray characteristics of real patients in practice simulated interactions with students. They are physically examined and questioned by students. The standardized patient then gives feedback to the students about the encounter.
Because FNU is a distance-learning institution, standardized patients provide our students a unique learning opportunity where they can practice clinical skills on real people. Students get to practice on standardized patients during their didactic studies, which occurs in their home communities, and during Clinical Bound, which is a five-day skills intensive where students come to our Versailles, Ky. campus before they begin their clinical rotations.
Standardized patients use a script, which provides consistency and a controlled experience in each clinical scenario while allowing the student to still interact and work on their skills with a real person. Students are able to practice physical examinations, history taking skills, communication, and patient counseling with these individuals. This innovative way of clinical practice benefits both the student practicing and their peers. Oftentimes, peers have the opportunity to watch each other during these sessions. During Clinical Bound at FNU, our students practice with standardized patients through both in-person and virtual visits.
What Does a Student-Standardized Patient Interaction Look Like?
The standardized patient is trained on the role they will be playing and the script they are given weeks before the simulation begins. The script includes things like their diagnosis, age, allergies, chief complaint, and history. It also provides characteristics and behaviors that the person should portray while in the appointment. This helps the student determine the diagnosis for the patient.
During the exam, the student asks questions about what is happening, performs a physical exam and then diagnoses and treats the patient, all as if the patient had this real issue happening.
Standardized patients are provided with a list of things they need to evaluate the student provider on. Standardized patients provide that feedback to the student and faculty members after their visit, once their peers leave the room.
How to Become a Standardized Patient
Are you interested in becoming a standardized patient at our Versailles, Ky. campus? Below you will find everything you need to know.
This position will use a case script detailing specific emotions, behaviors, and disease signs/symptoms for presentation during simulated learning situations. They must present this case information in a standardized manner, as elicited by students. Standardized patients are required to remain in a specific patient character as trained when responding to student questions and accurately remember encounters with students for the purpose of scoring student behaviors. They then provide educationally constructive verbal feedback within a structured format provided by FNU.
There is paid training to become a standardized patient and you will have several practices being one before you work with students.
“I enjoy the flexibility of the job and the variety of roles I am able to portray,” Martha Campbell, current standardized patient, said. “Being able to share communication feedback and insights feels like a valuable contribution to their learning.”
Our standardized patients work closely with faculty members and the Innovation Center faculty and staff.
Skills and Abilities Required to Apply:
- Minimum of a high school diploma
- Acting and experience as a standardized patient preferred
- Experience in health professions, communication, or education preferred
- Excellent verbal communication skills
- Reliable computer and web-communication skills, including use of Google suite and Microsoft Office products and web conferencing software
- Flexibility and reliability with scheduling and assignments
- Ability to read and absorb detailed case information and follow written and verbal instructions
- Strong attention to detail
- Willingness to be viewed and recorded throughout simulated patient encounters and feedback sessions
- Ability to maintain confidentiality and display diplomacy
FNU has used standardized patients as part of our innovative Clinical Bound experience for over twelve years.
“We have a robust program for all of our students covering birth to death, physical and mental health issues,” Tia Andrighetti said. “Our standardized patients are an integral part of the learning that our students get prior to real life patient encounters.”
FNU is the oldest and largest continually operating nurse-midwifery education program in the U.S. and has more than 2500 students enrolled. It is a leading distance-learning institution and was recognized for this by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) in November and was named a “2021 Great College to Work For”. For the fourth consecutive year, INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, awarded FNU the Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award.
This is an as needed contract position located in Versailles, Ky. For more information on this position and to apply for this job, please visit our website.
Of course, there is plenty of other FNU news to share. As we mourn the passing of Kitty Ernst in December, we pay tribute to her memory and lasting impact. We encourage you to read her remarkable story and join us in celebrating a life well-lived.
We also share some very exciting news about the 
“I chose Frontier for its reputation and for its focus on underserved, rural communities.”
Thank you, April, for living out FNU’s mission by providing equitable care to those living in a rural community and serving the marginalized people.
For Madison, Wisconsin-based Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) and Frontier Nursing University alumni Ingrid Andersson, the fundamental rights of pregnant people has always been at the forefront. Andersson believes that reproductive justice should be actively defended and that these rights, as defined by Loretta Ross of the Sister Song Reproductive Justice Collective, include the right to have children, the right to not have children and the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments.
“The word, for me, captures midwifery as a metaphor for an ecology or a reciprocity of world relationships, as much as the literal processes of pregnancy, birth and early parenting,” Andersson said.
While we want to celebrate the achievements and perseverance of those who pioneered midwifery in the United States, we should also acknowledge and be aware of any wrongdoing and harmful thinking and actions by them.
In our work as midwives, WHNPs, and educators, I think one of our most important goals should be to work to make pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period safe for ALL birthing people. This work includes being humble and listening to members of communities that have been historically marginalized. It includes welcoming folks into the profession who represent the communities they serve, and then humbly asking how we can support their success. It includes acknowledging and mitigating the harms that we have perpetuated on individuals and communities. It includes learning and learning some more, until all birthing folks are safe and satisfied with their care.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) is proud to recognize staff member Sarah Juett as one of the recipients of the 2021 Fall Term 
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).