About the CPC
The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine's Clinical Performance Center (CPC) is an interactive clinical skills education, testing and evaluation facility located in the Sanford F. Petts Center on the Biddeford Campus.
The center has a well-established Standardized Patient Program and a new Patient Simulator Program, both of which focus on putting the patient first.
The Facility
The CPC is designed and furnished in the model of an outpatient health center with eight regular "exam rooms" and two additional dual-purpose examination and clinical simulation rooms. The exam rooms have ceiling cameras and microphones that can funnel audiovisual information about a student-standarized patient encounter to a large centralized monitoring and recording room for interactive evaluation purposes.
Take a Virtual Tour of Petts Student Health Center
Standardized Patients and Human Models
Standardized patients (SP) are trained to portray a patient with specific healthcare needs. The SPs are individuals of all ages who receive training in health care communications, interpersonal relationship building, the performance expectations of various health professional students, and the basics of health care encounters.
Human models are hired to assist clinical faculty with teaching students how to perform sensitive exams such as breast, pelvic, and rectal exams.
If you are interested in becoming a standardized patient or human model, please fill out the online application that corresponds with your interest.
Patient Simulators
The robotic patient simulators also provide learning opportunities for you as you work with a team of others to engage in constructed clinical scenarios that are frequently of a more critical or emergency nature. The simulators offer ideal circumstances for practicing or assessing performance of complex and invasive clinical skills and the communications and functioning of the care team itself.
Services
The CPC provides both teaching and testing services, primarily for the first-, second-, and third-year medical students from the College of Osteopathic Medicine. First-year Physician Assistant students and residents of the Family Practice Residency also utilize the Center's services.
A typical teaching assessment session includes a series of one-on-one SP encounters in which you are asked to select and perform the appropriate medical history and examination for each; then you document your findings, impressions and plans. The encounters are timed and recorded, and you receive copies of the DVD recordings for your own self-assessment and reflective learning. You also receive feedback from the SPs and feedback on their notes.
The testing sessions differ primarily in that you do not receive the individual SP feedback; and the DVDs, along with case specific performance checklists, are graded.
As we move toward the future of the Clinical Performance Center, there are several exciting avenues for growth. Expanding the role of the patient simulation program is a high priority. Expanding the Standard Patient Program to students of other health profession is also a goal. Continuing to develop cases and learning scenarios that reflect the current challenges of the health care milieu and that allow you to become ever more patient-centered in your delivery of care remains the ultimate present and future goal of the CPC.