Grainger Center for Simulation and Innovation, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL
The Grainger Center for Simulation and Innovation (GCSI) at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL, provides learner-focused simulation training and education and advances state-of-the-art research to improve patient care and outcomes. Recent GCSI activities and accomplishments include:
Innovations in Simulation-Based Education - Surgical Physician Assistant Onboarding
This year, GCSI collaborated with the Director of Physician Assistant (PA) Education to create a unique curriculum for assessing the clinical skills of newly hired PA’s to ensure consistent and high-quality onboarding. Through data collection, we have demonstrated learning and have received positive feedback from participants. Due to the success of this new curriculum, we are piloting medical/procedural simulation assessments for our experienced PAs.
Community Engagement – GCIS’s “Simbulance”
Our Medical Simulation team has received a generous gift from the Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service, with sustaining funds from the Herbert Kirst Emergency Intervention and Education Fund. This repurposed Type 3 ambulance, or “Simbulance,” delivers immersive experiential learning/in situ training to community partners at area high schools, community fairs, and large events. GCSI’s Simbulance has proven to be very popular and in high demand in the communities we serve. A sample of our programming includes CPR training, asthma awareness and education, first aid training, babysitting training, injury prevention and awareness, heart attack awareness and education, and attendance at career fairs to educate students about job opportunities in healthcare.
Hospital virtual Valdecilla, Santander, Spain
New Advanced Robotic Radical Prostatectomy Program
The urology team at the Hospital virtual Valdecilla continues to strongly support specialized training in advanced robotic surgery. The team has designed a new radical prostatectomy program, which is aimed at specialists who want to perfect their robotic techniques and is structured around intensive skills hands-on sessions on both experimental animal and human cadaveric models. It also includes live surgery visualization inside the operating room (OR) and theoretical updates with the latest scientific and practical evidence. Two editions were produced for February and March 2022 year with a very positive response from participants. Another edition is scheduled for late November.
New Edition of Advanced Laparoscopy for Residents of the Spanish Association of Surgeons Coming in December
In December 2022, Hospital virtual Valdecilla will host a new edition of the Advanced Laparoscopy Course for Residents of the Spanish Association of Surgeons. This program, with broad national recognition and a consistent track record, is designed for senior residents. Objectives for participants include gaining an understanding of the technical standards of laparoscopic surgery, training laparoscopic skills in digestive anastomosis and other endoscopic surgical techniques, and using protocols for early detection of the most frequent complications in these pathologies.
Methods to achieve these objectives include:
- Live teaching of the surgical technique through surgical sessions performed by experienced surgeons
- Presentations focusing on different surgical technical aspects
- Practice for skill development of endoscopic techniques on endotrainer and experimental animals
New Surgical Instructor Development Program
The teaching innovation team of Hospital virtual Valdecilla has designed a new program aimed at training surgical instructors. Surgical instructors from Valdecilla were able to share their concerns and challenges when designing training programs for surgical procedures and requested a that they have access to a program to help them improve their skills as instructors.
The program, Design and Implementation of Programs for Learning Procedures, originates as a response to the specific challenges in surgical training. Its main objectives are to reinforce skills as an instructor of surgical procedures, reflect on stimulating teaching methods with the capacity to accelerate the learning curve and maintain the connection with the participants, and to be integrated into the design of innovative methodologies and simulation models.
Jump Training Simulation & Education Center (JUMP), Peoria, IL
JUMP Receives Grant for New Hands Down: Empowering Children and Families through CPR Education Project
Through the 2022 Jump Applied Research in Community Health through Engineering and Simulation (ARCHES) grant, Jump received $55,693 for a 1-year project called Hands Down: Empowering Children and Families through CPR Education. This project is being funded by the Jump ARCHES endowment through the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. The project officially started in January 2022.
JUMP Receives Generous Gift of Oculus Headsets
A generous gift to the Jump Simulation and Education Center enabled the addition of Oculus headsets to our simulation resource inventory. The Oculus headsets add the capability to virtually expand not only our simulation environment but also our simulated educational offerings. We are looking forward to developing virtual education that will further support our ACS Accreditation!
Lahey Center for Professional Development and Simulation, Burlington, MA
Lahey Hospital & Medical Center Opens New Simulation Center to Enhance Clinical Training
On April 14, 2022, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (LHMC) announced the opening of the Samuel and Nancy Jo Altschuler Simulation Center in Burlington, MA. “This new center provides leading-edge simulation training technology for physicians, nurses, fellows, residents, students, allied health professionals, and others,” said David Longworth, MD, president of LHMC.
The new center will enable health care workers at all levels to practice in realistic clinical settings using the latest technology and training methods to learn new techniques, strengthen teamwork, and optimize responses to crises and unanticipated events. The Simulation Center was built on-site at LHMC to integrate its medical education programs with the delivery of team-based care, in one convenient place, without the need for users to travel to an offsite location. Unique features within the Simulation Center include ORs and classrooms with special mannequins that simulate real patients, utilization of virtual reality and augmented training tools, procedural skills stations, and organ models.
“Most people assume that a clinician’s training ends when they finish their education,” said Dmitry Nepomnayshy, MD, director of the Samuel & Nancy Jo Altschuler Simulation Center & Professional Development at LHMC. “The Simulation Center will play a major role in further enhancing the care we provide and advancing medical knowledge.”
The Simulation Center also offers health care providers with training and credentialing in multiple areas, including Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS); more specialized areas such as Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), Fundamentals in Endoscopic Surgery (FES) and Fundamentals in the Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE); and courses in robotic surgery. Virtual reality bronchoscopy, endoscopy, and robotic bronchoscopy training modules, in addition to augmented reality tools for thoracentesis, echocardiography, and thoracic disease recognition, enhance a learner’s experience across many disciplines in an interactive way. The training is provided by LHMC physicians who are renowned in their fields.
To learn more, visit the Center for Professional Development and Simulation, or take a virtual tour of the new center.
M Simulation, Minneapolis, MN
$8K Grant Awarded for Developing and Assessing the Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professional Development Training with Standardized Patients Program
M Simulation received recognition for an $8,000 grant award, sponsored by the Association of SP Educators, in a collaboration with Howard University, to develop and implement a professional development program with standardized patients that will further diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare simulation training. Read more about the collaboration.
M Simulation Undergoes Facility Improvements during COVID-19
M Simulation consists of two former teams and three smaller facilities that merged during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The team now occupies a brand-new, state-of-the-art 24,000-square-foot facility at the University of Minnesota in the Health Sciences Education Center (HSEC). M Simulation offers a robust technical simulation program and also one of the largest human simulation/standardized patient programs in the US. The team designs and delivers more than 40,000 annual learner contact hours onsite in HSEC, at in-situ spaces collaborating with area hospitals and clinics, and online/remotely with standardized patients. Visit the M Simulation website for more information.
M Simulation Award Program for Medical Education Innovation
The University of Minnesota M Simulation Award Program for Medical Education Innovation is designed to advance training, utilizing simulation methodology—for medical students, residents, and fellows. The program is a collaboration between M Simulation and the UMN Medical School and only awards new initiatives, not routine/already existing simulation education programming at the University of Minnesota.
The M Simulation Award Program has been designed to be comprehensive in scope—specifically, rather than simply receiving funds without educational support, individuals applying for this award program must demonstrate a commitment to participating in a dedicated faculty/staff development process which is the unique foundation for this program. This foundation will support individual program participants in their professional development as simulation educators. Organizationally, this program is purposefully designed to foster an innovative educational partnership between M Simulation, the Medical School, and UMN GME programs.
Award recipients will receive simulation education training by M Simulation team members in simulation scenario design, assessment, and evaluation principles specific to simulation, providing constructive feedback to learners, facilitating effective debriefing sessions with learners, and research design as applicable to simulation methodology (if applicable). Additionally, these awardees will receive funding (a maximum of up to $3,000) to cover associated costs such as space use in the new M Simulation facility, equipment, and other supplies as needed with the logistical/operations support from M Simulation team members.
Rocky Vista University (RVU), Parker, CO
New High-Fidelity Cut Suit Surgical Task Trainer for Surgical Skills and Orientation to Surgery Weeks Course
To deliver premier experiences for its students, Rocky Vista University offers a wide range of experiential activities to enhance the learning process. RVU’s Surgical Skills and Orientation to Surgery Weeks course now offers access and experiential opportunities with an advanced high-fidelity cut suit surgical task trainer.
RVU Healthcare Simulation Center Undergoes Facility Improvements
In addition to numerous recent equipment upgrades, RVU’s Healthcare Simulation Center has been remodeled and expanded to allow students to experience a highly realistic environment. Improvements include ambulance access, two trauma bays, two ORs, and a convertible post-anesthesia Care unit to provide a continuum of care. Twenty exam rooms allow for up to 200 student-patient interactions every 4 to 5 hours.
RVU Integrates Two New Programs on Virtual Reality
Two new virtual reality programs have been successfully integrated into the curriculum of our Osteopathic, Physician Assistant, and Master of Biomedical Science programs. RVU has worked with our external affiliates and added several multi-team Mass Casualty Incidents involving large groups of learners from our region. In our future, we will offer a Certified Nurse Anesthetist program in 2023, and a Master of Healthcare Simulation in 2024.
Tulane Center for Advanced Medical Simulation and Team Training (Tulane Sim Center), New Orleans, LA
Recipient of $196K Louisiana Board of Regents Grant
Tulane Sim Center was awarded a $196,000 Louisiana Board of Regents grant to support department enhancement. The co-PIs are Ben Rothwell, MD, Med-Peds; Carlos Galvani, MD, FACS, FASMBS, Surgery; Bernard Eagleton, MD, Anesthesia; Olubenga Akingbola, MD, CHSE, Pediatrics; and Jennifer Calzada, MA, MPH, Sim Center. The grant supports adding or replacing several simulators and pieces of medical equipment and will enhance resident- and medical student-level education and training. Specific purchases include a mechanical ventilator, 15 Butterfly IQ+ ultrasound probes, upgraded SimBaby manikin, and the new Surgical Science/Simbionix USMentor with interventional modules for central venous catheter insertion and thoracentesis.
University of Chicago Simulation Center, Chicago, IL
University of Chicago Simulation Center Trains the 357th Army Reserve Medic Unit
The 357th Army Reserve medic unit recently trained at the University of Chicago Simulation Center. Learning from the medical center’s best trauma surgeons, this army medical unit practiced some of their trauma and critical care skills, such as FAST exams, cricothyroidotomies, chest tube placements, and more. Other regional army medic units will be training at the Simulation Center as part of a partnership between the University of Chicago Medical Center and the US Army.
Read more about the program and the partnership on the UChicago Medicine website.
University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, Wichita, KS
At the University of Kansas-Wichita, we are excited to coordinate with SAGES over onsite remote FES and FLS testing for our surgery residents. Though some surgery attendings are members of SAGES, this is the first working association with the Skills Lab in this endeavor.
As an ACS-AEI Focused Center, this partnership has afforded considerable savings both financially and logistically for our residents and the program. The surgery residents are all extremely appreciative of the onsite opportunity. Prior to this, the residents would travel out of state for testing and—with combined lengthy travel time and testing—would often be away for 1.5 to 2 days. Our onsite testing has also made it more feasible for the residents to successfully complete this requirement earlier in their training, which benefits their ongoing skills set. Faculty, too, have been very positive about this addition to our program.
University of Toronto Surgical Skills Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital (SimSinai Centre), ON
Recipient of Karl Storz Endoscopy Canada, Ltd. Equipment Grant
(Original article by SimSinai Simulation Technician Marina Romanova first appeared in Revival, the Official Newsletter of the SIMSINAI Centre, Volume 10, Issue 1)
The SimSinai Centre’s exciting equipment acquisition started in February 2021 when Kim Thompson, Account Executive At Karl Storz reached out to Christine Novak, PT, PhD, with a Grant of Equipment offer of two new flexible intubation scopes, available as a purposed donation for the Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department. The decision was made to acquire the two scopes for the SimSinai Centre to make them available immediately for training and teaching for all disciplines of physicians involved with upper airway management procedures. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, this generous offer came was well-timed to provide new modern top-quality tools for managing intubation in protected code blue scenarios.
For over two decades, Karl STORZ company endoscopy subdivision was supporting ENT, anesthesia, and neurosurgery hands-on training sessions on the Surgical Skills Centre premises with equipment and technical consult. Ms. Thompson is well known to SimSinai and SSC staff as an expert in upper endoscopy equipment. She is highly responsible and knowledgeable regarding education. Sensing the urgency of the situation with a pandemic, she initiated the idea of organizing the donation of flexible intubation scopes to facilities in need around the world, including SimSinai Centre. Ms. Thompson was happy to mention that another Grant of Equipment for fiberoptic scopes already has been shipped to Armenia to provide assistance in treating patients with COVID-19.
SimSinai Centre will put this donation to great use in the training of our large number of medical learners in techniques of airway intubation utilizing our human patient simulators.
Washington University Institute for Surgical Education (WISE), St. Louis, MO
WISE Hosts High School Students from Local CAPS Program
The Washington University Institute for Surgical Education (WISE) Center hosted a group of excited high school students from a local CAPS (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) Program for a hands-on experience of surgical skill models. Students tied surgical knots, performed exercises on laparoscopic trainers, navigated an endoscope through modules on a simulator, and competed for high scores on the robotic simulators. Many conversations concerning how to prepare for a future in healthcare were had with the assisting residents, and a great time was had by all.
