Autism Spectrum Ambassador Program
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorder
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The investigators are evaluating the implementation and the effectiveness of a medical
      student staffed support program (ASAP) for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder
      coming into Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital for a medical procedure. The ASAP program
      involves training and assigning a medical student as an Ambassador to help advocate for the
      special needs of a child with ASD. This study is designed to compare patient satisfaction of
      children and families who are assigned an Ambassador to those who are not assigned an
      Ambassador during the procedure. The secondary objectives are to measure overall medical
      student satisfaction with the program, medical student career interests before and after
      participation, and medical student comfort level interacting with children with ASD before
      and after participation.
    

Detailed description: 
      The Autism Spectrum Ambassador Program (ASAP) is a medical student staffed program designed
      to improve the experience for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder coming into the
      Children's Hospital for a day procedure involving anesthesia. This program will pair an
      interested and trained medical student with a family whose child is scheduled for an
      outpatient procedure and who is identified as possibly needing special accommodations to
      improve cooperation and procedure tolerance.

      Patients will be identified using the Anesthesia clinic's schedule via PowerChart, consented
      at the pre-operative anesthesia clinic visit, and enrolled in our program by study personnel.
      Once enrolled, families will be asked to complete a confidential survey that will identify
      areas that can be accommodated on the procedure day. Students will gain access to these
      survey results, contact the family at least 1 day prior to the procedure. A brief discussion
      will take place to review the child's history and survey results. The student will then
      create a written, personalized Accommodation Plan to be distributed to personnel and the
      family. The student will meet the family at the hospital and accompany the family check in
      until the patient is in the post anesthesia recovery unit.

      Students will be trained to chart a child's Accommodation Plan for each member of the
      treatment team which will be distributed by the student with ample time before the procedure.
      This accommodation plan will alert each treatment team member including surgical nursing,
      anesthesia, registration, and to the extent possible surgeons, to what accommodations will be
      needed to improve the experience of the child. Students will be trained to assist with
      accommodations by communicating on the family's behalf to hospital personnel to include
      surgical nursing, anesthesia, registration, and to the extent possible surgeons, among
      others.

      To the extent possible, the investigators hope that having a student advocate, educate staff
      on the procedure day, and implement changes as needed will improve patient satisfaction with
      the experience and improve the ease with which a procedure can be carried out for a child
      with ASD. Students will also be queried as to the experience and survey data will be used to
      improve the program over time.

      Training will be completed so that all members of the treatment team will be aware of the
      program and aware of the possible accommodations. Treatment team members will be provided
      additional training to enhance the success of the ASAP program and all treatment team members
      will be encouraged to work together for the best possible outcome for all patients. Treatment
      team services include: surgical nursing, anesthesia, registration, and to the extent possible
      the surgeons involved in the care of these children.
    

Intervention name(s): Assigned Ambassador
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): If assigned to the intervention group, participants will be contacted by the assigned medical student ambassador at least 1 day prior to the procedure. A brief discussion will take place to review the child's history and survey results. The family will be met by the Ambassador at the hospital and stay with the family until the patient is in the post anesthesia recovery unit. The ambassador is expected to make accommodations for the child as determined by the accommodations survey results. The family will be required to allow the Ambassador to stay through check-in and the procedure.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Supportive Care
Keywords: autism; ambassador