The USF Morsani College of Medicine's Center for Advanced Clinical Learning (CACL) offers enhanced clinical learning in the fields of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, pharmocology and athletic training. Training includes the use of simulators and standardized patients.

Since learning clinical skills is an integral part of medical education in the Morsani College of Medicine, students begin their clinical skills training in their first week of school with an introductory Standardized Patient (SP) experience. On average, every student will experience over 50 hours of direct SP encounters throughout their education.

The Mission of the Center is to educate students in good patient practices; professionalism, communication and cultural diversity are just a few of the affective domain tenants imparted from a patient’s perspective. Standardized patients are trained to provide meaningful and constructive feedback to individual students as they process through their SP encounters.

In an effort to display a more unique perspective on the Morsani College of Medicine, we have asked experienced Standardized Patients to participate in an Ambassador program, whereby our Admissions Candidates are given the opportunity to sit with a Standardized Patient and ask questions. The SPs, called Ambassadors for this activity, are asked about their training, about student training and about what clinical education looks and feels like at USF. All candidates are given an opportunity to learn, first hand, more about patient-perspective training. All Ambassadors donate their time for this activity and find it immensely rewarding to be a part of the candidate’s day at USF.

The Ambassador Program has been running since 2009.