A Walk in My Shoes: Using Art to Explore the Lived Experience of Psychiatric-Mental Health Standardized Patients.

Use of standardized patients (SPs) to teach mental health nursing skills is increasing. Although the literature regarding the effectiveness of this teaching strategy supports its use, information regarding the effect of portraying mental illness on SPs is lacking. Using a qualitative approach incorporating art as expression, this effect was examined. Five SPs created an artistic expression to describe their work portraying an individual with mental illness while working with senior nursing students enrolled in a psychiatric-mental health clinical nursing course. Themes identified include: (a) Walking the Walk, (b) Listen to Me, (c) See Me as a Person, and (d) Letting it Get to Me. Immersion into the role of the SP with mental illness affects actors. The current article offers best practice approaches to address psychological implications for SPs portraying mental illness. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 55(8), 39-47.].