SLU AT Students Benefit from a Team Approach to Assessment

Dr. Jason Bennett monitors the action from the control room.

Saint Louis University first year athletic training students were given a realistic final practical examination in MAT 525-Musculoskeletal Assessment and Management.  Course coordinator Dr. Jason Bennett teamed with Dr. Tony Breitbach, the course coordinator for MAT 680 Seminar in Athletic Training, to utilize second year AT students as standardized patients for the practical examination.  Through MAT 680, the second year AT students developed patient case scenarios as an assignment which they then "acted out" as patients for the first year AT students for MAT 525.

SLU first year AT students wait for the sign to enter a patient exam room at the Simulation Lab. 

This was all done in the technology-embedded Simulation Lab in Allied Health Building where six students at a time went through the scenario cases while the instructors viewed the action on digital monitors in a control room.  This video was recorded and a grading rubric was used to grade the first year AT student performance.  The second year students also provided the instructors with feedback regarding communication and other professional behaviors by the first year AT students.  This was followed up with the students writing up the scenario using appropriate documentation procedures.  These type of activities allow for more complete and authentic assessment of clinical skills. 
Special thanks go out to MAT program alumni Jacob Blasingame and Meghan Gehrs who assisted as standardized patients with this activity.