Just as flight simulators have been the standard learning and testing model for the airline industry for many years, the use of simulation can be the answer to developing health professionals’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, while maintaining patient safety. Providing planned, standardized learning opportunities supports participants to understand each health care provider’s respective role, and how to work effectively together.
Simulated scenarios include multiple evidence-based components: pre-brief (introduction to the simulation environment and case material), clinical scenario, and post-scenario debrief, which creates space for guided reflection and shared insight into individual as well as team growth.
“The beauty of simulation is that we’re able to tailor our education and our team-based practice to reflect the needs of our patient population, as well as to ensure that we’re not surprised by low occurrence or infrequent events,” said Dr. Tania Sullivan, Family Physician and Emergency Physician at Nova Scotia Health. “We can target those often stressful situations in our training, without depending on actual patient presentations for experience.”
Simulation based education is happening throughout the province, but here are just a few examples of how this technique is being used to ensure we are ready and at our best for our patients.
Simulation-based programming at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital: Maintaining skills and improving patient outcomes
Credit: Doctors Nova Scotia
Dr. Sullivan is a founding member of the team responsible for bringing simulation to St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish.
“My interest and advocacy for simulation based education started about nine years ago, as a practicing provider,” said Sullivan. “Myself, and a small team of emergency room nurses in our small regional hospital, recognized that one of the valuable things we often organically did after we had, say for example, a code blue or stressful incident, was to walk through the details again, and openly unpack it with the goal to support and strengthen the team moving forward”
“After doing that a few times, we thought, wouldn’t it be really nice if we gave our teams a chance to practice together before stressful events actually happen – so the real-life experience was something that felt practiced and prepared for,” continued Sullivan. “It wasn’t long before we recognized that what we wanted to do locally, aligned very well with the internationally growing field of healthcare simulation”.
At that point, Sullivan and her nursing colleagues approached St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation, who agreed that simulation was a valuable healthcare technique and strategy for team building, and something that patients would greatly benefit from. From there, the team committed to professional development as simulation educators and were able to start developing the infrastructure for simulation-based programming at St. Martha’s.
The simulations at St. Martha’s are not just for nurses or doctors. In fact, any health care provider who sees patients at the hospital is able to participate.
“We have seen a progression from those participating in the simulations,” said Ivan Cozzi, Registered Nurse, and Advanced Care Paramedic at St. Martha’s. “They learn more every time they come to a simulation experience. They feel that stress of actually being in the department as if they were in the hospital treating patients. That means we’ve achieved what we wanted to and are not only making the simulations as real as possible but are doing that in a safe space.”
QEII Simulation Program: Safely learning to work effectively as part of an interprofessional team
The QEII Simulation Program helps health care teams facilitate innovative experiential best practice learning and competency maintenance at three facilities in Halifax – the Sim Bay (Halifax Infirmary); the Simulation Centre (Centennial Building); and the Skills Centre (Bethune Building).
At the Sim Bay, learners participate in a range of medical and trauma resuscitation cases that reinforce clinical skills while also incorporating crisis resource management strategies.
The Simulation Centre is focused on developing best-practice, communication and crisis management skills using innovative scenarios and high acuity patient conditions.
And the Skills Centre helps develop, support, and assess surgical competencies for multidisciplinary healthcare providers. Medical professionals can acquire new skills, or practice and perfect their surgical dexterity.
“The QEII Simulation Program team is focused on facilitating the simulation needs of our healthcare providers here in Halifax,” said Andy Howes, Manager of the QEII Simulation Program. “We are accessible to all those looking to integrate simulation into their education plan, and we offer a range of facilities and equipment designed specifically to help deliver scenario based simulation and health based/surgical skill development. It’s really exciting to witness the growth of simulation across Nova Scotia. The value of this form factor is really being embraced by the learners.”
Pictured (L to R): Front - Joanna, Andy, Jason, Back - Jen, Ahmad, Charlie (SIM), Donna (Missing from photo: Allison, Peter)
Nova Scotia Health Learning Institute for Health Care Providers: Meeting the needs of learners across the province
Nova Scotia Health’s Learning Institute for Health Care Providers offers education programming designed to meet the needs of learners across the province and strengthen our health care system.
“We are committed to delivering high-quality, evidence-informed programming that enables providers to develop and maintain foundational and specialty competencies,” said Barbara Fagan, Nurse Educator, Simulation Learning. “Programs at the Learning Institute use simulation as an active teaching and learning strategy, allowing learners to develop new skills and competencies together in a safe environment.”
Learners have opportunities to reflect on their performance and provide and receive feedback to improve performance during debriefing.
“Simulation builds collaborative teams who learn from, with, and about one another, while promoting high-quality, safe, and effective person-centered care,” adds Fagan.
Simulation Learning Team at Learning Institute (L to R): Lacey Tiscornia, Alicia Gilchrist, Barb Fagan, Dylan Gallagher (Missing from photo: Tanya Frail, Lisa Adams)
SimEd Network: The hub of simulation for Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia Health is a member of the SimEd Network, which brings together partners like the IWK; Dalhousie University (Faculties of Health and Medicine); and the Nova Scotia Community College, who are on the ground offering high-quality simulation-based programming every day.
With a goal to help keep those involved in health simulation connected, the SimEd Network provides opportunities for continuous learning and growth in the capacity to deliver the highest quality simulation-based education in Nova Scotia.
This includes a new Sim IPE facilitator development program, which was launched in the spring of 2022. This program is ensuring that new clinical leaders and educators are supported and developed in simulation competencies. It also provides opportunities for feedback to current simulation leaders and educators to help improve IPE simulation competencies requirements to perform their roles, and ultimately provide access to safe, collaborative person-centered acute care to Nova Scotians.
For more information about Health Care Simulation at Nova Scotia Health, visit the following:
- SimEd Network
- QEII Simulation Program
- Nova Scotia Health Learning Institute for Health Care Providers
September 12-16 is Healthcare Simulation Week, an opportunity to promote how health care simulation helps build the foundation of a stronger healthcare system that, in turn, provides the best patient care possible in our communities. Learn more here.
