Project Lead: Dr. Katharine Hudson
A one-day “Train the Trainer’ course for physicians and educators in April 2019 was made possible through RHPS funding.
“While I have not done a formal needs assessment, my impression is that most physicians and educators at Richmond Hospital have not had any formal training in Simulation,” notes Emergency Physician Dr. Kate Hudson. “Many have expressed an interest in pursuing this. Many nurse educators have also expressed interest in a course such as this one.”
Simulation is widely recognized as an important tool in education. When used in situ by inter-professional hospital teams, benefits such as improved team morale and communication can be seen. Simulation offers an opportunity to prepare for rare but critical incidents (code orange, surgical airways, etc.) or to test hospital processes as part of quality improvement and/or monitoring initiatives.
The tool of debriefing can also be used clinically when leading teams. For instance, many hospitals regularly debrief all critical events that occur (e.g. “code blues”). This provides a formalized opportunity to reflect on team performance, systems issues, and address any concerns that may arise.
Dr. Hudson sees this course as an opportunity to enhance physician engagement, skill development and skill building. “As a hospital, we will be able to make best use of the opportunities afforded by simulation (and our proposed Simulation Lab) if we have skilled facilitators from a variety of backgrounds locally. Many departments have expressed interest in developing (or are currently developing) their own simulation programs, for example, Anesthesia, Obstetrics, Intensive Care, Pediatrics, etc. This course will give interested leaders and educators at Richmond Hospital an ability to connect as well as develop new skills. We hope that, as an outcome of this training, we will empower local physician and nurse champions to independently conduct their own inter professional and interdisciplinary simulation sessions within their own clinical space as a means to unmask latent safety hazards, improve quality, reduce errors, and improve team dynamics,” concludes Dr. Hudson.