USING A STANDARDIZED PATIENT APPROACH TO ENHANCE CLINICAL SKILLS IN GERONTOLOGICAL SOCIAL WORK

The rapid increase in the number of older adults in the United States, coupled with new accreditation standards based on competencies, requires social workers to show competence in working with older clients. This teaching note reports on the development and use of a standardized patient (SP) role-play to teach and evaluate the ability of graduate social work students to conduct an appropriate and sensitive mental status exam. A rubric used in the evaluation of student performance and evaluation data from student competencies is included.