Standard Patient Actor

Northern Kentucky University is hiring a Standard Patient Actor for its Simulation Center in Highland Heights, KY. This role sits firmly in the performance space, with actors portraying patients in scripted medical and social service scenarios produced for healthcare and human services education. It suits performers who are comfortable working within structured simulation production environments, taking direction from clinical faculty, and repeating scenes with consistency across multiple student cohorts.

About the Role

The Standard Patient Actor works inside the College of Health and Human Services Simulation Center, which functions much like a controlled production set where scenarios are scripted, staged, and run repeatedly for student training. A typical day involves performing patient simulations for disciplines including nursing and social work, staying in character through clinical interviews, physical assessments, and emotionally weighted exchanges. The work is close to ensemble short-form performance production, where scene accuracy and repeatability matter as much as authenticity.

Key Responsibilities

• Portray patient characters in simulation scenarios written for nursing, social work, and other health and human services curricula.
• Maintain character consistency across repeated runs of the same scenario with different student groups.
• Take direction from simulation faculty and clinical coordinators between takes, adjusting performance to meet specific educational objectives.
• Embody physical and emotional conditions as scripted, including presenting symptoms, emotional distress, or cognitive states relevant to the training scenario.
• Participate in pre-simulation briefings to review scenario parameters, character background, and session goals.
• Support post-simulation debrief sessions when required, providing performance notes or feedback from the patient character perspective.

What You Bring

• Prior performance experience in scripted, directed environments such as short film production, theater, or educational simulation work.
• Ability to sustain character under clinical observation without breaking focus or improvising outside scripted parameters.
• Comfort working in a medical or institutional setting with students who are actively learning assessment and communication skills.
• Reliability across repeat simulation sessions, including availability for scheduling across multiple student cohorts.

Why This Role

Northern Kentucky University runs an active Simulation Center that produces a consistent volume of scenario-based performance work tied directly to accredited health and human services programs. For performers interested in educational simulation production as a steady complement to other screen or stage work, this is a reliable recurring engagement with a structured production environment. The position is temporary and compensation details are available through the university’s hiring process.

Apply now for the Standard Patient Actor role at Northern Kentucky University and bring your performance skills to a production environment that directly shapes the next generation of healthcare professionals.