This weekend, December 5 & 6, IGMA, the International GTA MUTA Association is hosting its first annual conference. The event is going to be held virtually and boasts a number of esteemed speakers from across the United States and internationally. Today’s blog will share some basic information about our Day 2 presentations and speakers.

Starting at 9:00am, IGMA Vice President, Scott George, will address attendees and introduce the Committee Chairs to present their reports. Mr. George has a decades long career in the field of GTA MUTA and is Executive Director of Clinical Skills USA, Inc., serves on the Advisory Board of the Men’s Health Network, is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) and is a founding member of IGMA, the International GTA MUTA Association and sits on the Board of the organization.  He has collaborated with Isle Polonko in the administration of a grant project in 2010 that provided forensic evidence collection kit training to medical Residents, the results of which were instrumental in the current trends to utilize GTAs in simulation for forensic evidence collection kit training.  Scott’s work as Member Liaison on the Board of  ASPE sought to provide communication and networking opportunities between SANE program directors and local GTA programs. Mr. George has presented dozens of workshops and collaborated in the development of protocols for use of GTAs and MUTAs in SANE and SAFE training and is recognized as a leader in the field of GTA MUTA education.

At 10:00am,  esteemed ASPE members,   Holly Hopkins DNP, CNM, former GTA/MUTA SIG Chair; Chelsea Weaks Med, BSN; Tim Webster MEd, and Melih Elcin MD will present Introducing the Association of Standardized Patients (ASPE) GTA/MUTA Standards of Best Practice (SOBP). This workshop will present the Standards of Best Practices as developed by members of ASPE and case studies will be used to facilitate application of the SOBP.

Dr. Hopkins is an Associate Professor and GTA/MUTA Program Administrator at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA.  She is Chair of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Practice Committee and Past-Chair of the ASPE GTA/MUTA Special Interest Group (SIG).  Holly has been involved in GTA work since 2002. Her hard work and dedication to the field has had a positive and lasting impact.

Dr. Elcin is a professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. He initiated the first GTA program in Turkey in 2015 and has co-authored numerous articles including an article about the project that was published July 2016 in the Journal of Clinical Simulation in Nursing entitled “Success of the First Gynecological Teaching Associate Program in Turkey.  Dr. Elcin was awarded the ASPE Outstanding Educator of the Year award in 2019 and is a pioneer for simulation and GTA methodology in his region of the world.

Chelsea Weaks administers the GTA program at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.  She the Vice Chair of the ASPE GTA/MUTA SIG and has been involved in GTA work for eight years.

Tim Webster is an experienced Standardized Patient (SP) Educator having started with the University of Manitoba as an SP in 1994, piloting and implementing the Male Urogenital Teaching Associates (MUTA) Program in 1998, and becoming a trainer in 2004.  He has organized and prepared simulations for every healthcare field taught at the Rady Faculty Health Sciences, and participated as the lead SP Trainer for the Medical Council of Canada’s Winnipeg Centre since 2005.  Between 2014 and 2016 he helped establish five new MUTA Programs in western Canada, and in 2019 accepted the position of Chair for the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) GTA/MUTA Special Interest Group.  In 2019 he completed a master’s degree in education, which culminated in a quantitative research study confirming the efficacy of templates in compiling case information for SPs. 

At 12:15 there will be a presentation of the first IGMA Lifetime Achievement Award and a video montage of influential program directors and researchers in the field of GTA MUTA education. Thank you to Ms. Kehaar and Mr. Fusco of Daily Dose Music for providing the music as background for the presentation.

At 1:15, Jennifer Lanier and Tru Chatelain from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon will present Unconscious Bias in GTA Exams exploring some identified biases in medicine and ways to improve patient outcomes. Ms. Lanier has been a standardized patient/gynecological model turned GTA trainer in Portland Oregon for over 12 years, primarily working for Oregon Health Sciences University. She received her classical acting training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and improvisation training from Paul Sills at his Wisconsin farm. Lanier is currently Co-Artistic Director of Original Practice Shakespeare Festival (OPS Fest) in Portland Oregon. As co GTA trainer at OHSU, Ms. Lanier works to improve patient care through GTA methodology.

Tru Chatelain is currently the GTA/MUTA and Standardized Patient Program Manager in Simulation at Oregon Health & Science University.  Ms. Chatelain established the first GTA/MUTA program at OHSU in January 2018, dismantling the former medical model program and empowering those that teach with their bodies.  The transition from a medical model program to GTA/MUTA has been a transformational experience for leaners, faculty and Teaching Associates. Ms. Chatelain’s work passion for consistency and respectful collaborations continues to drive new and innovative solutions.  Her foresight in bringing GTA MUTA independent instruction to Oregon will positively impact the way in which learners access this critical information and in turn, how they will interact with their patients.

At 2:30 three different program directors from different areas of the United States will co-present a program on the challenges and triumphs of small scale GTA MUTA programs. Lee Ann Miller EdD, CHSE; Rachel Older BS; Chelsea Knutson MSN, BS, RN, CNE, CA-SANE all co-lead this presentation.

Lee Ann Miller is the Assistant Director for Education and Evaluation at STEPS (Simulation Training and Education for Patient Safety), West Virginia University Health Sciences and coordinates the Standardized Patient (SP) program.  Dr. Miller is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator and has background in Educational Psychology, Instructional Design & Technology.  Her program not only works to ensure high quality simulation education, but also recruits and trains individuals for teaching the gynecological and male urological exams as well as Standardized Physical Exam Teaching Associates. Dr. Miller is a member of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE), the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSIH), a former participant of the Mountaineer Leadership Academy, and a graduate of Teaching Scholars Program.

Rachel Older is Program Manager of the simulation team at Central Michigan University’s College of Medicine working with resident physicians as well as medical, physician assistant, and nursing students. Ms. Older works closely with faculty and staff in Mt. Pleasant and Saginaw to create and implement simulation activities to enhance educational outcomes. Since joining the team in 2014, she has become a Basic Life Support Instructor, Scrub Trainer, and teaching assistant for physical exams, suturing and vital signs. She was a presenter for ASPE’s “SP Telecommunication During the Covid-19 Pandemic” webinar last April, which highlighted her simulation lab’s adaptation to remote learning. Rachel believes in the idea of life-long learning and values being a part of the College of Medicine in preparing students to do just that.

Chelsea Knutson brings nine years of simulation experience to the panel. She began her journey as a standardized patient and went on to earn her certification as a Gynecologic Teaching Associate (GTA) and a GTA Trainer. While completing her BSN, she served as Disaster Day Incident Commander, directing and overseeing core leadership in the planning and implementation of large-scale disaster simulation for College of Nursing, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine. After working in the emergency department as a registered nurse and later charge nurse, Ms. Knutson returned to academia as a simulation coordinator. She developed the Male Urogenital Teaching Associate (MUTA) program curriculum and trained the inaugural group of MUTAs with the help of a colleague. She then developed the Physical Examination Teaching Associate (PETA) program and went on to manage all three of these programs across five campuses. She then took on the role of Assistant Director of the Bryan Clinical Learning Resource Center, managing, planning, and creating simulation education experiences across disciplines of nursing, medicine, and pharmacy. In the fall of 2019, she was offered a position as Program Manager for Forensic Outreach at the Center of Excellence in Forensic Nursing at Texas A&M University College of Nursing and has been a key member of several forensic nursing projects and grants at Texas A&M. Her primary role at Texas A&M is to facilitate SANE education through the use of simulation involving GTAs and MUTAs.

Finally, at 6:00pm two exceptional days of presentations conclude with an excellent workshop on inclusion of transgender GTAs and FTAs in clinical skills labs for sexual assault training. The presentation, Opening the Door to Utilizing the Transgender Population in Your Clinical Skills Labs by Liana Hill MSC, RN, RSCN, FNE, SANE-A, SANE-P, and Richard Claflin BA. (To read about Mr. Claflin, please take a look at yesterday’s blog to meet Day 1 presenters https://gtamuta.org/meet-our-presenters-day-1-igma-conference/.) IGMA is honored to have participation in this presentation from three of the only five transgender forensic teaching associates in the world, Mani Blunt, Nash Davidson and Charlene Moss.

Liana Hill is both a Forensic Nurse and the Forensic Nurse Examiner Program Director for Crisis Services of North Alabama, sponsor of our Conference through providing Continuing Education hours for participants. Ms. Hill’s program began in the mid 90’s providing examinations to Sexual Assault victims, in 2004 Mrs. Hill began the first Domestic Violence Nurse Examiner program in the State of Alabama.  Under her guidance and passion, the program has expanded services to include child physical abuse, domestic violence strangulation, elder abuse and suspect examinations to assist in civil and criminal cases and provide medical care to patients who often are unfamiliar with services that are available to them in the community. Ms. Hill is one of four nurses in Alabama that holds both her SANE-Adult/Adolescent and SANE-Pediatric certifications. In 2019 her program became the first in country to have its SANE-Adult/Adolescent, SANE-Pediatric, combined SANE-A/P and Skills Labs approved by the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) in the nation. Ms. Hill was also the first SANE program in the country to train transgender Forensic Teaching Associates for her in-house GTA program. She continues to be a leader in the field of sexual assault forensic examination.

These are our presenters for Day 2 of the conference. IGMA is very lucky to be able to welcome this prestigious panel of speakers to its first annual conference. It is literally only $30 to attend the entire day’s events, and CE hours are provided for nurses. This is an event you will not want to miss. Check in tomorrow to meet the presenters for Day 2 of the IGMA conference. The link for conference information and registration is https://events.gtamuta.org/ See you all there