Assistant professor collaborates with Special Olympics Maryland to share the experience of UMBs standardized patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Rebecca N. Weston, EdD, MSN, RN, CNE, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing at the Universities at Shady Grove, collaborated with Special Olympics Maryland (SOM) to highlight the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)'s efforts to improve disability care in SOM's publication Inclusive Healthcare Education – We All Learn When Working with Standardized Patients with Disabilities.
Weston worked alongside Peris Bennett, Special Olympics Health Messenger and UMB standardized patient, and Kayla Shields, director of inclusive health and fitness at SOM, to showcase how UMB’s inclusion of standardized patients with disabilities helps healthcare students develop empathy, improve communication skills, and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The article highlights the lived experience of Bennett as he became one of UMB's first standardized patients with IDD. .
Read the full story here: https://helenjournal.org/february-2025/inclusive-healthcare-education