The Standardized Patients Podcast

Matthew Sparacino and returning guest & ‘Feedback Godfather’ Tom Wyatt help us out with something new and experimental (ooh) in this week’s episode where we conduct a Feedback Workshop. Through a roleplay SP Encounter and Student/SP feedback sessions with Matt & Katie, Tom helps us workshop SP feedback skills from beginner to advanced. We discuss why getting feedback correct is important in an education roleplay setting, and the value of doing it effectively and correctly.

Tom Wyatt has worked professionally as an actor since age 16, and a director / choreographer since college, his skill set transitioned happily into performing and training SP's working with medical students on their interpersonal skills. For the past 25 years, his life has been a joyous combination of working in the theatre, and also being a fixture in the several local Medical School SP programs.

Matthew Sparacino (he/him) is an actor, theatre artist, writer, and educator with over a decade of experience across a broad spectrum of disciplines. A DMV native and lifelong resident, he has performed onstage in dozens of productions, including world premieres, devised works, puppet shows, silent pieces, classics and contemporary plays.  Matt has also worked for many years as a teaching associate and standardized patient at several of the area’s top medical schools, where he coaches students on communication, interpersonal skills, bedside manner and physical diagnosis.  www.matthewsparacino.com

Matt will be performing in ‘Iphigenia’, a modern adaptation of the Greek myth written by our good SP friend Kerry McGee and produced by We Happy Few.  The show is running at CHAW from May 24-June 17.

Instagram | @matty.cino
Website | www.matthewsparacino.com

This week we chat with guest Pat Beaven, SP and Author of FAKE PATIENT and learn about her book, the first (non-technical!) written work about Standardized Patients.

Pat Beaven is a writer, educator, and actor living in Toronto, Canada. After teaching with the school board for sixteen years, she left because there were so many other paths she wanted to explore. She has worked in television, film, and radio, and has acted on stage in regional and dinner theatre across the country. Discovering SP work eighteen years ago has allowed her to blend her teaching and acting background; Pat loves the variety of the work and enjoys the roles she plays as a medical, physiotherapy, psychiatry, pharmacy, and social work patient or client. Sharing those experiences in her third book, FAKE PATIENT, has been a joy.

Look out for Pat’s upcoming audio voiceover projects this spring and her fourth book, a memoir early this summer!

FAKE PATIENT can be purchased on Pat’s website

Instagram | @itspatbeaven
Website | https://www.patbeaven.com/

We’re back to basics this week, asking: what is a Case? And why do Standardized Patients need them? Joined by guest Jennifer Brown we talk about SP Cases and how they are the DNA for all Standardized Patient work, along with chatting about the good, the bad, and the ugliest of them *wa wa waaaah*

Jennifer Brown has been an SP for about a decade now, and a PETA (Physical Exam Teaching Associate) for almost as long. She came to this work when falling back on her theater undergrad degree after leaving the practice of law. She loves the dynamic nature of the work and the positive energy of being surrounded by both medical students and creative colleagues. She does not love how often our call time is as early as 7am.

Instagram | @jenniferbrown100

We talk about about SP work in the DMV, about what about other parts of the US? Is everywhere there’s SP’s for the just traditional university medical work? Today we explore these questions with guest Aviva Pressman as she shares with us stories from her wide range of experience as an SP and roleplay actor.

Aviva Pressman (she/they) has been working as a standardized patient, standardized patient trainer, physical exam training associate, lactation skills training associate and gynecological training associate for over 10 years. The day she had to have her taint painted with scars by a professional make-up artist was the day she knew she’d made it in this business.

Insatgram | @avivaisapalindrome
Website | https://www.avivapressman.com
TikTok: @theveevers

You can purchase Aviva’s one-woman show Deadlift here
Aviva will be performing in Cinderella at Musical Theatre West until December 18

You can find her next performing in the absurdly-long titled  A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT THE MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY 

We’re back for Season 2 of The Standardized Patient Podcast! This week we discuss the big question - what does an SP do every day? Joined by guest Jon Reynolds we talk about what a day in the life of an SP looks like and why there is no such thing as a “normal” SP routine.

Jon Reynolds (he/him) is an actor, deviser, designer, and playwright from Washington DC. He can be heard in We Happy Few's horror audioplay series A Midnight Dreary, The Tell Tale Heart; and also as Sherlock Holmes in We Happy Few's The Adventure of the Dancing Men and The Norwood Builder. On the DC stages he was last seen in Ada and the Engine (Avant Bard Theatre), Visions of Love (Pointless Theatre Co.), Pericles (We Happy Few), and Mnemonic (Theater Alliance). Other DC area credits include Beertown, A Killing Game, Courage, and Toast (dog & pony dc), Perfect Arrangement (Source), The Winter's Tale, As You Like It, and The Second Shepherds' Play (Folger Theatre), and Romeo & Juliet (The Shakespeare Theatre Company). Jon is a graduate of McDaniel College, MD.

Insatgram | @actorreynolds

Jon will be performing in Loveday Brooke in The Mystery of the Black Bag, a live radioplay from We Happy Few on January 28th.

Checkout www.wehappyfewdc.com/lovedaylive for more details.

In a totally unprecedented turn of events, for some reason, SP work ceased in-person work in 2020. Needing to adapt, the industry went Virtual. Join us and guest, Charlene V. Smith, as we talk about the Dawn of the Virtual Encounter Era and how the SP’s industry’s adaptations were not only a substitute for in-person work, but how new education and telehealth education arose from SP work - along with a little chaos - as we head towards a hybrid medical education future.

Charlene V. Smith is a director, actor, and scholar specializing in Shakespeare and his contemporaries and feminist theatre. She has been working as a standardized patient for twelve years at eight different schools or medical facilities across the DC / Baltimore metropolitan region. 

Twitter | @charlenevsmith  
Website | www.charlenevsmith.com

Charlene was in the midst of producing Shakespeare's eight history plays for Brave Spirits Theatre when the pandemic shut the project down. The performances have been reimagined as audio dramas which will be released in episodic form in early 2023. Check out www.bravespiritstheatre.com to stay up to date, or find the company on social media.

This week we dive into what makes SP work compatible with a busy artist’s or actor’s schedule. Guest Nick DePinto breaks down SP work’s value both in and outside his acting career, what it takes to be SP, and the added value and practice you reap by putting the time and immersion into the SP role.

Nick DePinto is an American actor of no particular renown. He has a Master's Degree in Classical Acting. He is a veteran of 6 National Tours. As a voice over artist, you can hear him as the X-Men's Colossus in Graphic Audio's Marvel Comics audio adaptations. As a Presenter you can see him at all major ports of entry into the US as the host of YOU'VE ARRIVED, the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Service's primary informational video for new entry into the USA. On Amazon Prime you can see him play Luke in MEANT TO BE BROKEN. Nick is a friend to most and a constant foe of the darkness of the human condition. He has been doing SP work since 2008.

Nick will be appearing in MAPLE & VINE by Jordan Harrison at Spooky Action Theatre in Washington DC directed by Stevie Zimmerman. Find his band The Dusty Stars wherever you purchase your music.

Nick’s Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/nickdepinto/?hl=en
The Dusty Stars | https://www.instagram.com/thedustystars/?hl=en

Let’s meet a real-life SP Trainer! (aka the people who train and prep SPs for their cases and encounters, and are the go-between for medical student goals and SP/SIM Center goals.) This week we guest Christopher Herring, an SP Trainer based in the CA Bay Area, talks us through his SP Trainer trainer transition and share with us his job duties, how he bridges the SP and medical world, and his advice for SPs in the workplace.

Christopher Herring is from Jackson, MS, and an SP Program Trainer in the California Bay Area. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, he was a performing artist who also worked as an SP and PETA for collegiate and government medical simulation programs for over 6 years in the Washington DC area. He's excited to be in this new administrative role of training SPs and having some fun adventures along the way.

Instagram - @herringgram | Twitter - @herring_tweets

Let’s talk about SPIs (aka Standardized Patient Instructors) What do they do differently from an SP? Who are they instructing? Guest Emily Sucher talks us through the different types of SPIs and the value of having a Standardized Patients aid in training and being the first real person to interact with Medical Students while learning physical tests and maneuvers.

Emily Sucher has been an SP for seven years, a GTA for six, and a PETA for about five and a half. They will die on the hill that both clinically accurate medicine and respectful, patient-centered caregiving are equally necessary to be a good doctor and if you think those two things are at odds, you're wrong. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @emalaia or check out their website (www.emily-sucher.com)

Exam Day *Lightning Cracks*

Perhaps the longest, most complicated, and most dreaded day(s) on the job as an SP. Guest Tom Wyatt (an OG SP!) talks us through the etiquette, dos and do nots, ups, and downs, of these critical work days as well as shares tips and stories on working with Med Students during these *stressful* periods.

Tom Wyatt having worked professionally as an actor since age 16, and a director / choreographer since college, his skill set transitioned seamlessly into performing and training SP's to work with medical students on their interpersonal skills. “For the past 25 years, my life has been a joyous combination of working in the theatre, and also being a fixture in the several local Medical School SP programs.”

Check out Tom's Upcoming performances!

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND is currently running in Baltimore weekends through June 26th : Director and Choreographer

https://www.ccbcmd.edu/Campus-Life-and-Activities/Arts-and-Culture/Performing-Arts/Theatre-Productions/Community-Theatre/Cockpit-in-Court-Summer-Theatre/Current-Season.aspx

Tom will also be playing the Man In Chair in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre in August / September.

https://summergarden.com/now-playing/