Training Guide for Standardized Patient Instructors to Teach Medical Students Culturally Competent Tobacco Cessation Counseling

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: This module was designed to serve as a toolkit for health care educators interested in training lay persons to serve as tobacco-using standardized patient instructors (SPIs). The curriculum has been applied in undergraduate medical education, but could easily be adopted in physician assistant programs, nursing schools, and residency programs. Methods This module is divided into three parts, expected to be completed within three, half-day training sessions. Chapters one through three of this module correspond to the curriculum content to be delivered. These chapters are titled: Introduction to Tobacco Cessation Counseling, Recognizing and Evaluating Culturally Competent Tobacco Cessation Counseling, and Providing feedback on Tobacco Cessation and Recognizing Culturally Competent Counseling, respectively. Chapter four, titled Observation of an SPI Encounter, may occur within the three days or be offered on another day while Chapter 5: Standard Forms, provides additional training materials. It is recommended that the comprehensive training program be fully undertaken to achieve the full value of the curriculum content. Results The significance of this work and the reliability of the training were published (Foley KL, George G, Crandall SJ, Walker KH, Marion GS, Spangler JG. Training and evaluating tobacco-specific standardized patient instructors. Fam Med. 2006;38(1):28-37). The results showed that “SPIs highly rated the content, organization, and presenters of the training program. Medical students positively evaluated their experience with the SPIs. The [Tobacco Intervention Risk Factor Interview Scale] TIRFIS and [Tobacco Beliefs Management Scale-Tobacco Cultural Concerns Scale] TBMS-TCCS subscales demonstrated good internal reliability and inconsistencies in ratings by different SPIs were minimal. In addition, a range of scores on both measures attest to the sensitivity of the instruments to assess variations in student performance. Significant start-up costs are associated with developing this training program, although costs decline when SPIs are retained long term. The SPI training program was effective in developing a cohort of knowledgeable and reliable SPIs to train medical students in ways to improve their tobacco intervention counseling skills.” Discussion The module was designed to serve as a toolkit for health care educators interested in training lay persons to serve as tobacco-using SPIs. The curriculum has been applied in undergraduate medical education, but could easily be adopted in physician assistant programs, nursing schools, and residency programs. It is recommended that the comprehensive training program be fully undertaken to achieve the full value of the curriculum content.

Keywords

• Standardized Patients
• Nicotine
• Smoking Cessation
• Humanistic Environment
• Tobacco