Get Involved
The opioid epidemic has impacted many people, often igniting in them a powerful urge to become part of an enduring solution. UMass Chan is rigorously pursuing the potential within medical education to create an opioid conscious curriculum that is much more than changes to standard courses or electives – to make our hands-on training immersion a reality, we rely on the engagement of partners across the region.
If you are motivated to be part of an educational solution, please consider enriching the UMass Chan OSTITM initiative by getting involved.
Patients in Recovery or Family Members
We are inviting people in recovery, their families and loved ones age 18 or older to be part of a panel of participants who will meet with medical and nursing students in hour-long small groups for confidential conversations about the impact of opioid related illness on their lives. If you have an interest in this type of engagement, please contact Eileen.Bouchard@umassmed.edu or Kendra.Vandervalk@umassmed.edu.
Standardized Patients (SPs)
Standardized Patients are part-time, per diem employees: part actor and part educator. SPs work with medical learners from across the region, and provide the service of allowing medical learners to engage in realistic scenarios, while building essential skills in empathetic communication. Standardized Patients are trained to:
- Simulate a broad range of medical conditions in realistic and consistent patient encounters
- Portray and replicate several medical conditions
- Role play communication challenges
- Deliver feedback on key communication skills
- Evaluate and document learner performance
You do not need a medical background to become a Standardized Patient – just a sincere ability to support the medical learner by providing consistent portrayals and accurate feedback.
Small Group Facilitators
We are also actively recruiting Small Group Facilitators, to provide oversight during OSTITM sessions. Sessions will last 4 hours and are conducted at UMass Chan campus iCELS (interprofessional Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation) between April and early June.The OSTITM program consists of two, 2-hour small group sessions, back to back, for a total of four hours. Each OSTITM small group session includes four clinical encounters with standardized patients (SP’s) portraying realistic patient care experienced in day to day clinical practice across the spectrum of disciplines relating to safe opioid prescribing practices. Each small group will have four students and one assigned faculty facilitator. Our learners will be graduating UMass Chan medical students and advanced practice nurses as well as a cohort of rising year 3 medical students. Students are required to complete the OSTITM session with formative assessment and feedback on skills but no formal grade or exam.
Please consider volunteering if you meet these qualifications:
- Faculty appointment at UMass Chan or elsewhere or senior level resident currently in a medical or nursing residency program (the latter must be recommended by their program director).
- All facilitators will be required to complete a faculty development module that will provide skills building for small group facilitation and feedback as well as content expertise required for the clinical cases. CME credit in opioid prescribing and risk management is being sought for this faculty development.
- We welcome a diversity of heath care professionals and educators, including MD, APN, DNP, MPH, DPsy, PhD, EdD, etc. that span clinical specialties
If you are interested in this type of engagemnet please contact Kendra.Vandervalk@umassmed.edu