Let’s Take This Online: Converting a Large-Scale Interprofessional Standardized Patient Exercise to a Virtual Platform

Simulation and standardized patients (SPs) provide valuable opportunities to improve interprofessional collaboration skills by allowing trainees to engage in authentic clinical settings, tasks, and roles. Since 2009, UCSF has conducted an annual Interprofessional Standardized Patient Exercise (ISPE). Each year, more than 500 learners from seven health professional schools (Chaplaincy, Dentistry, Dietetics, Nursing, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Physical Therapy) work in teams to evaluate a SP with multiple chronic conditions, develop a care plan, and debrief the experience. Prior to 2020, the ISPE was conducted in a simulation center. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 we converted the ISPE to an entirely remote format. We will share our experience successfully implementing a large-scale interprofessional simulation exercise using Zoom. We will discuss key lessons learned including:- Embrace the “telehealth visit” format: During case development, seek input from practitioners who conduct telehealth visits to make the SP encounter as authentic as possible.- Consider which elements of the exam trainees can accomplish during a video visit (e.g.: joint range of motion) and which they cannot (e.g.: lung auscultation), and tailor your case accordingly.- Prepare your SPs: We held 5 detailed training sessions for SPs prior to the virtual ISPE. Over the course of five days in April 2021, 571 learners, 12 professional actors, and 107 faculty members participated in the virtual ISPE. We will present quantitative and qualitative evaluation data from our ISPE.Our experience demonstrates the feasibility of conducting an interprofessional simulation exercise on a virtual platform to provide trainees with an engaging opportunity to practice interprofessional collaboration skills. Importantly, the virtual format circumvents many logistical barriers to in-person SP exercises (e.g.: lack of access to a simulation center), thus greatly increasing the feasibility of implementing similar interprofessional SP exercises at other institutions, and even conducting collaborative exercises across institutions.