Anne-Marie Uebbing, associate professor of Nursing at Mount Saint Mary College, recently discussed how Nursing students can increase their empathy for patients via simulations.
"Kindness: Teaching Empathy and Knowledge Through Human Simulation" was part of the Investigating Research on Campus (iROC) series. Like all iROCs, the virtual talk was open to the public.
"Empathy is an essential component of patient care," Uebbing noted.
Can Nursing students increase their important empathy skills through training? Yes, said Uebbing. Empathy is embedded in clinical training to support a rapport with patients, and in addition, melds health provider-patient trust and reassurance.
Human simulation, as enacted by a scripted patient in an educational resource laboratory, is a powerful tool to assess emotional-cognitive awareness and clinical knowledge to support empathy, noted Uebbing. It also fosters student self-confidence when discussing clinical findings with patients, she said.
To that end, Uebbing shared standardized patient clinical simulation models that she observed during her 2019 sabbatical, when she visited simulation labs at the Center for Clinical Education and Research – IMPACT Practice Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and at the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning at McGill University in Montreal. These simulations can include simple solutions, such as actors standing in for patients, as well as more complex methods, such as holographic, artificial intelligence.
Uebbing is a member of the graduate faculty at the Mount's School of Nursing and specializes in preparing adult-gerontology and family nurse practitioner students for clinical practice. She holds a BS degree in Nursing from Columbia University and a BA in Medical Anthropology from SUNY Purchase. Her graduate degrees include a Master of Science in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice, both from Pace University. She is also a registered nurse.
In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Uebbing is a practicing family nurse practitioner. Her areas of interest include wireless technology for patient-centered chronic disease management through avatar-based digital devices. She is also a participating fellow at the Center on Aging at the New York Academy of Medicine, working to develop innovative strategies for ensuring that elder persons have access to clinical care.