Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / The Evolving Role of Simulation in Healthcare Education and Workforce Development, and Why it Matters

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The Evolving Role of Simulation in Healthcare Education and Workforce Development, and Why it Matters · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. This is Brian Zimmerman with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning into
• 0:04
  the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  Today, we're going to talk about the evolving
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  role of simulation in healthcare education and workforce
• 0:11
  development and why it matters for leaders focused
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  on clinical readiness, patient safety, and long term
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  staffing strategy.
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  Joining me for this discussion is Samantha Smeltzer,
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  VP of simulation at Orbis Education.
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  Sam, thank you for being here today. Hey.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  And to get us started, can you just
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  share a bit more about yourself, the the
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  work you're doing right now, your professional journey,
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  whatever you think is, will will best help
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  listeners sort of appreciate your perspective as we
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  move through the conversation today. Yeah. Absolutely. So
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  first and foremost, I'm a nurse. I still
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  practice clinically,
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  at a local hospital where I live. I
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  started my nursing career, with second career, about
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  twenty years ago, so I'm dating myself a
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  little bit. But did that, was a med
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  surg PCU nurse,
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  fell into the education pathway,
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  about six years into it. And with that
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  simulation came aboard.
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  Took my first class of simulation with doctor
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  Donna McDermott. She was one of the, instrumental
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  simulationists
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  of her time creating the standards of best
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  practice,
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  the pre briefing standard and just fell in
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  love with simulation. I fell in love with
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  how it helps with students,
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  progress, become safe in the clinical practice, and
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  I've been doing that ever since with education.
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  With Orbis Education, I was a SIM coordinator
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  for a a partner of ours and quickly
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  rose the ranks of vice president of simulation.
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  My day to day role is kinda cool.
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  It's very unique,
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  in the simulation world because I don't attach
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  myself to a single site.
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  I work with all of our sites within
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  the ORMIS partnership from
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  building a new sim center site to
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  getting
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  equipment, finding the best pieces for the curriculum,
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  to teaching and educating the staff, and sometimes
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  popping in to do simulation
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  when there's a need.
• 2:00
  Excellent. Well, wonderful to hear that background, and
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  let's get right into sort of the the
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  simulation component here, what we're we're here to
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  discuss.
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  And, of course, that is becoming
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  an even bigger part of the conversation when
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  it comes to nursing education today.
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  So specifically from from where you sit from
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  your experience,
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  can you can you expand on what role
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  simulation
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  has in preparing graduates for the reality of
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  clinical practice? You touched on that a bit
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  in your intro, but can you unpack some
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  additional details there?
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  And why is this so
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  pertinent now? Why is this such a a
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  hot topic right now for for health system
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  leaders,
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  as I think about,
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  nursing and and getting nurses ready?
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  I think simulation plays a huge part in
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  getting a, quote, unquote, practice ready nurse.
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  We're seeing a a transition where there's less
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  clinical sites from hospital settings to have nurses
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  they've learned in didactic or theory to translate
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  into practice.
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  Due to a lot of students,
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  hospitals actually putting some regulations on nursing students
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  on what they can and cannot do. So
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  when students graduate,
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  yes, they graduate. They, they pass the the
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  state board of nursing,
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  but are they ready? You know? Have they
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  done the the skill sets? And in a
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  hospital setting, we're finding out that a lot
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  of that is a no. They were doing,
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  and where do we find the students to
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  be confident in their skill sets? They know
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  it by knowledge, but can they actually practice
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  with it? And simulation bridges that gap. It
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  provides students a safe area to,
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  you know, fail and not kill a patient.
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  Right? So that's the biggest thing. We wanna
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  make sure our students are safe to practice.
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  So when they do make learning opportunities,
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  you know, otherwise known as mistakes, they learn
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  from those, and they could take those pearls
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  they learn in simulation and lab and translate
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  that into practice. So if they haven't done
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  it in a real life clinical setting, they've
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  done it in simulation,
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  and they can see
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  the as faculty, we can see where the
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  students
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  may miss that gap, that frame of why
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  they did the thing they did, and then
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  we can kinda circle back to it and
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  make sure they
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  understand
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  the importance of doing processes,
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  skills safely,
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  give them confidence so when they're actually in
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  the, clinical floor as a nurse,
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  they have those tools in their toolbox.
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  Yeah. And I imagine that confidence component specifically
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  is hugely important here. Right? The stakes are
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  incredibly high, and if they've gone through it
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  in simulation, at least they have that in
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  their back pocket. Like, hey. I know how
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  to avoid x y z. Yeah. And I
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  think that's a huge point because, again, like,
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  with clinical spaces, it's uneven. You might have
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  a great,
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  I use usually the example of OB. You
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  know, the goal of, OB is maybe to
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  say a birth or some kind of critical
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  event, but we never wanna see that happen.
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  So they could go through twelve hours of
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  a OB
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  clinical without seeing a thing, no births. Because,
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  again, we can't schedule births. You know, it's
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  nature's way of deciding what happens.
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  So if they go into an OB floor,
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  they may never seen those things. They may
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  have learned about it, but they're not seeing
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  it in practice. Well, we can translate that
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  into simulation
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  so they can see a postmortem hemorrhage or
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  they could see a critical event, and now
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  they have some critical thinking applied to it
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  so they can actually
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  use those skills to help keep patients safe.
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  Yeah.
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  It's a great point. And and thinking here
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  now specific about, you know, some of the
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  recruitment and retention
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  challenges that are well documented for for for
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  health systems,
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  how can nursing education programs
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  play perhaps a more active role in helping
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  hospitals connect with and and sort of evaluate
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  those practice ready graduates?
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  I think here,
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  one of the things I think we don't
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  use enough is a simulation to showcase our
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  our students' learning and their critical thinking aspect
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  of it. One of the key indicators that
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  I see is,
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  you know, we rely on GPAs. We rely
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  on good,
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  referrals or applications, but can we know the
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  nurse is actually ready to practice?
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  And I think that we're missing that opportunity.
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  It's no more like you sit in an
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  interview, and you have these behavioral questions, but
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  can they actually do the work? And I
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  think that we, as an institution, can play
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  a huge part of that when we go
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  in to do work fairs or
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  understand that maybe
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  showcasing our students in that light that they
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  actually, you know, can do those critical thinking,
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  practice ready skill sets that we wanna see
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  maybe at just a snapshot in time so
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  they know that they're getting
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  quality care nurses. I think we could highlight
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  that a lot more.
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  For example, one of my, partners are doing
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  that already. They're calling it's a senior send
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  off.
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  To be quite honestly, I think it's an
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  amazing program. They work with health care organizations
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  locally, and they bring in nurse managers, recruiters,
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  and the students do,
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  simulation.
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  And they ask the simulation kinda highlights their
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  critical thinking, where they're at in the program.
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  They're getting ready to graduate, so we wanna
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  see some, you know, higher level skill thinking
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  and, applications.
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  And the feedback that we're getting from that
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  situation is amazing. Recruiters love it. They see
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  the students in action.
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  They do interviews at that time. There's, you
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  know, the documented cases that students do the
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  simulation. They meet with recruiters and charge nurses,
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  and they have that dialogue where if I
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  was a charge nurse, I can just talk
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  to that that student and say, here, here's
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  what a med search floor looks like. Here's
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  what an OB floor looks like. I see
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  what you can do in a simulation lab,
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  and then they talk and they have that
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  understanding, and then they get hired on the
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  spot. I think we need to do more
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  of that. I think we need to do
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  more hands on, see the visual
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  visualization
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  of our students
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  actually performing the work. You know? Because, again,
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  going back to clinical, they may not see
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  the nurse managers or the recruiters
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  because everyone's busy. Right? They're doing multitasking jobs.
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  And I think having the recruiters and charters
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  just coming to us, we can showcase our
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  students in a much
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  better light and showcase that practice readiness that
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  we're looking for. Yeah. And and it's it's
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  easy to hear about how how that's better
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  for recruiters and and and the organizations, but
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  I also imagine it's it's a great experience
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  for the students too, the nurses, right, coming
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  out. Like, especially if they get a job
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  out of this situation, they're gonna have a
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  better
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  connection to the organization
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  that's employing them. Correct? Oh, absolutely. I mean,
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  how cool would it be? You know, I
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  think back from my career. I met the
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  nurse manager the day one. Right? She interviewed
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  me for maybe fifteen minutes,
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  and then, you know, I met her on
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  my first day of orientation.
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  But not knowing what the floor was on,
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  I kinda understand a little bit, but
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  being immersed with that or even say, hey.
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  Have that conversation with that nurse manager is
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  like, why don't you shadow one of my
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  nurses to see what that floor looks like?
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  Being able to have that opportunity, I think,
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  is is instrumental
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  in wanting the students to come in and
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  actually retain them. I think that's a huge
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  thing too. Like, we can hire all the
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  nurses, but the key is actually the next
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  step is retention.
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  Right? Because nurses have, like, a transitional shock.
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  What they think they know and then going
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  into practice, I I think that's something that
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  we as health care providers,
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  organizations, and nursing schools can help ease that
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  transition. Maybe working with the health care organizations
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  of, like, what's your residency look like? What
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  kind of things we could do in the
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  last, you know, twelve weeks or six weeks
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  of nursing school to kinda
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  ease the students into
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  that hospital system, I think, would be very
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  important.
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  Sure. For for a leader, Sam, listening to
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  this who is really prioritizing patient safety right
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  now. Mhmm. What what would you want them
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  to help them understand about the limits of
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  of, say, traditional
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  nursing education
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  and how simulation sort of overcome some of
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  the limits of the those models? I think
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  our entire conversation today is kind of getting
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  at this, but any other specific callouts in
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  terms of how simulation gets beyond some of
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  those past limitations?
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  Yeah. I I imagine if you're a c
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  suite looking for patient safety, quality metrics, and
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  institutional risk, it helps to recognize the uncomfortable
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  truth with clinicals,
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  in person. You know? Nursing schools have direct
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  clinical care. It's the golden egg of nursing
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  schools, but we need to understand that it's
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  uneven.
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  Clinical rotations depend on what happens on the
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  unit that day. So if it's a slow
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  unit or quiet unit, they may not have
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  the opportunity to see those halo events, a
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  high risk, low opportunity
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  situations that will challenge the nursing students to
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  at least maybe observe
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  a systematic process like a code. You know,
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  code is a controlled chaos, but if they've
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  never witnessed it in real life purse you
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  know, real life,
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  they can be so shocked and not follow
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  through what they learned through traditional education.
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  So having those things
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  with a traditional education simulation can mimic. Right?
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  Because we can
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  mimic a rapid
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  response situation or a medical error or a
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  code or something high stakes. Right? So students
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  can do this, make those learning opportunities in
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  simulation,
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  and then take those pearls and apply it
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  to practice. Right? But I think because of
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  the un unequalness of clinical spots,
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  you know,
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  I think that's a challenge for our students.
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  Plus, again, the limitations that the hospitals put
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  on the students,
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  depending on the regulatory
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  status, they may not let students actually do
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  some skill sets like a glucose check. So,
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  again,
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  they're kinda limiting the nurses on what to
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  do, and I think we need to have
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  pull that in and pull it into simulation
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  so they at least have that exposure to
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  it.
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  For sure. I I think it's a it's
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  a great call out in terms of helping
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  them get ready for when those moments happen.
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  You don't kinda, I guess, for lack of
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  a better term, freeze up or not be
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  able to draw on what you what you've
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  what you've come to know in your education.
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  Right? Absolutely. And I think the biggest part
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  of a simulation, it's always been debriefing. You
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  know, when you have this serious halo event,
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  coming back to the room to debrief it,
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  to have that expertise of that facilitator
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  walk through the students' thought processes,
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  find out where the opportunities for change can
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  happen, and then repeat it if they or
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  if they can't. Because, again, that's why we
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  learn. We learn by doing. We learn by
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  calling on past events. So, again, if we
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  can do this in a safe environment
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  where students can feel safe to practice at
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  their age or their capabilities
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  and then come back to debrief this, that's
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  the learning moment for simulation, and that's what's
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  gonna take them and recall back when they're
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  actually in that situation
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  in a clinical
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  area or when they become,
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  you know, practicing clinician.
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  For sure. Before I let you go, Sam,
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  is there anything
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  we didn't cover today that you think deserves
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  more attention in this conversation, or perhaps I'll
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  leave it to you? Maybe it's something you
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  wanna reemphasize before I let you go. I
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  would really think that we need to go
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  back to look at the basics. You know?
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  Look at the nurse residency programs.
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  See how hospitals can
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  work with the schools of nursing in their
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  area to see what what we could do
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  to kinda pull off that heavy lift of
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  residency. What can we pull into the senior
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  immersion that they can take away and become
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  more prepared for that first six weeks of
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  nursing? I think that would be something that
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  I would love to see more collaboration on.
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  I think that's the key missing piece in
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  my opinion. It's the collaborations with health care
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  partnerships and schools of nursing,
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  And I think that's something that we can
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  focus on. And when the students graduate, they
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  are more practice ready than what we had
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  had in the past.
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  A great praise to to leave the conversation,
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  Sam. Thank you so much for coming on
• 13:23
  the podcast.
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  Thank you for having me. We also wanna
• 13:26
  thank our podcast sponsor, Orbis Education.
• 13:29
  You can tune to more podcasts from Becker's
• 13:31
  Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.