Digital Standardized Patients: Zachary LaFontaine

In the Advanced Primary Care – Pediatrics DCE, students have the opportunity to interact with Daanis and her son Zachary. Students care for Zachary as an infant at his 2-month well visit and then in a later assignment when Zachary is a toddler for a sick visit.

Students learn that baby Zachary sometimes sleeps on a cradleboard, a traditional carrier used historically and still today by indigenous families. While this assignment creates a space for learning and awareness of cultural specificities unique to Daanis’s background, it also is focused on an often-encountered infant care topics across all demographics. With Daanis, students will need to dig deeper to uncover information about Zachary and discover how Daanis and Zachary are doing.

This assignment also includes learning moments for students about inequities in healthcare. Daanis supports herself, attends school, and works a job at the university bookstore to provide for her family. Part of the student’s role in this simulation is to not only provide their patients with education around infant care but also learn more about inequities in healthcare, with Daanis supporting herself and Zachary while continuing to further her education.

Students see Zachary again when he is 30 months old and experiencing gastrointestinal issues. His grandmother, Rebecca, calls in for a telehealth visit. To further showcase the cultural specificities in this simulation, the background also includes artwork from a Turtle Mountain artist in the assignment. This was an important feature to include because it is a telehealth visit case and it gives students a realistic preview of the LaFontaine home. Since we are seeing the LaFontaine home for the first time, Dr. Wilkie recommended one of her favorite artists from the Turtle Mountains, Bill Brien of Bountiful REIs, to provide authentic artwork for the walls of their home.