Standardized Patients to Measure and Address Intersectional Stigma

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

The main interactions associated with research activities in Stage 1 involves collection of baseline data using a face-to-face survey as well as the unannounced SP approach. The face-to-face survey will be administered by study staff with consenting providers to collect information on demographics, ...

The main interactions associated with research activities in Stage 1 involves collection of baseline data using a face-to-face survey as well as the unannounced SP approach. The face-to-face survey will be administered by study staff with consenting providers to collect information on demographics, professional training experience, and attitudes towards common medical procedures. In addition consenting providers will have an unannounced standardized patient dispatched to their clinic over the course of the observation period (between 3-6 months from the time of consent) to collect data on observed clinical behaviors. Standardized patients will present at these clinics as standardized cases with indications of early stage syphilis infection. Provider participants will not be informed that the patient is an standardized patient and so will carry out clinical duties according to their standards of practice. Standardized patients will be trained to retain specific details of the visit to have recorded immediately following the visits with assistance from study enumerators. Enumerators will not accompany standardized patients into the clinic but will instead wait nearby location such as inside the hired car used for transport to and from clinics. During the clinic visits, if a provider suspects a certain patient is an standardized patient, they will have been instructed during their enrollment procedures to abstain from discussing the standardized patient visits and instead treat the standardized patient as they would any other patient. At the conclusion of the follow-up procedures, providers will be given an opportunity to ask whether a particular patient was in fact an standardized patient, findings from which will be included in our study findings as a "standardized patient detection rate." The main study activities associated with Stage 2 will involve development of the intervention based on findings of the baseline data collection as well as input from members of the two community advisory boards. Therefore no activities that could be considered interactions will take place in Stage 2 of these protocol activities.

Tracking Information