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Quality, reliability and safety are primary concerns in your professional world—and in ours. At SiTEL of MedStar Health, we provide a comprehensive education and training solution to those who work in healthcare. As seasoned professionals, we have many years of experience in the practice and management of medicine and healthcare, respectively. We understand how training impacts performance in hospitals.
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Blog
04
Oct
2010
2010
Simulation Training Series: Part One
Posted by Todd Borghesani
Compared to other high-risk industries, healthcare has been slow to incorporate simulation into its training, assessment, and certification activities. The potential for simulation to improve patient safety, reduce medical errors and deaths, and decrease health care costs is far from fully realized.
Simulation strengthens confidence and promotes competence by providing a safe and supportive environment for mastering skills, practicing protocols, learning system-based practice, applying critical decision making, and developing communication and interpersonal skills.
Serving over 23 million U.S. Veterans, it is critical that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) develops a coordinated effort in simulation training, education, and research to maximize the benefits of simulation for its staff and Veterans. In “Simulation 2010 Update: A Review of Simulation-based Strategies for Healthcare, Education and Training,” the VHA begins what will be an ongoing process of research and improvement.
Consequently, on July 17, 2009 the Acting Under Secretary for Health authorized the establishment of a national simulation training and education program for the Veterans Health Administration.Named SimLEARN (Simulation Learning, Education, and Research Network), the program’s mission is to develop and maintain a national strategy for the deployment of simulation training and education across VHA. SimLEARN will ensure that VHA optimizes its resources and applies new training technologies toward the ultimate goal of improving the quality of health care for Veterans.
Enterprises can capitalize on VHA’s extensive investment in simulation resources. Using the VHA’s key findings they can develop system-wide policies, guidelines, documentation strategies, and protocols; and design essential curricula and competency evaluation tools. Additionally, mechanisms should be established that allow VHA to assess the effectiveness of its simulation training initiatives and to share the findings from its simulation research and development.
In healthcare, simulation is becoming an essential component of education, training, assessment, and the maintenance of professional certification. Substantial advances in technology in the last two decades have resulted in new and remarkable ways of creating simulated environments that can enhance or substitute for experiences with living patients.
Health profession schools have incorporated simulations that range from basic task trainers and standardized patients to high fidelity mannequins and virtual patients. Practicing professionals have been slower to adopt simulation methods for safety or quality initiatives and as a life-long learning strategy.
Across the next few weeks, I will be perusing this report and excerpting key concepts across the following six areas:
(1) Mannequin-based Simulation In Healthcare
(2) Task Trainers and Haptics
(3) Standardized Patients
(4) Virtual Patients for Medical Education
(5) Virtual Environments
(6) Process Modeling Using Simulation
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Authors
Hollie Adejumo
Hollie Adejumo has been a high school intern at the SiTEL Clinical Simulation Center since 2010. Her principal areas of academic interest include chemistry, calculus, and global health. She is interested in providing medical services to the public and serving as a health advocate for underrepresented populations. Hollie hopes that her research will help to reduce unnecessary deaths in the future. She will pursue a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, which will enable her to combine her interests. Proceeding to obtain an MD/PhD will give her the ability to have autonomy in the practice of medicine. This year Ms. Adejumo will be assessing the need for orthopedic simulators, and hopes to begin designing a program for an orthopedic simulator by the end of the year. Outside of school, Hollie participates in a variety of activities. Although she has been a competitive swimmer for most of her life, she also enjoys running cross country and track.
Joyce Donnellan
As the Director of Learning Management, Joyce Donnellan brings over two decades of experience in critical care nursing education and professional development to SiTEL, Medstar’s Simulation and Training Environment Laboratory. She oversees the development and operation of SiTEL’s learning management system. Ms. Donnellan specializes in the development and integration of the learning management systems in complex and decentralized environments. She has extensive experience in education and training, including the development of curricula for both live and e-learning platforms. Ms. Donnellan enjoys collaborating with program directors, educators, and other stakeholders to develop training events and effective curricula. Her research endeavors include studying the impact of online learning on organizational behavior, as well as the integration of educational games into curriculum development. Joyce has presented nationally on e-learning topics, and on innovation in emergency preparedness training. She earned her Master’s of Science in Nursing degree from George Mason University.
Pamela Leonard
Pamela Leonard brings over 15 years of experience in critical care nursing and management to her role as the Director of the SiTEL’s Clinical Simulation Centers. Pam established the first simulation center for MedStar Health and now oversees the operations of several clinical simulation centers in the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore areas. She leads the Clinical Simulation Consulting Services at SiTEL, leveraging best practices pioneered at MedStar to integrate simulation training and education programs into healthcare operations. Pam works closely with Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation. AIMS is a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to promoting medical simulation as a way to improve patient safety, reduce medical errors, ensure provider competency, train people to respond to public emergencies and combat situations, and reduce health care costs.
