Copy

WISER Highlights

Fall 2019
 

Director’s Corner


Greetings WISER Friends,

Welcome to the latest installment of the director’s corner. We have had a great spring turned to summer and are now staring at the beautiful colors of fall that we enjoy in Southwestern Pennsylvania each year.
We once again had a blast collaborating with the Safar Center for Resuscitation to host the simulation half of the Annual Safar Symposium. This year we focused on research in simulation as well as the importance of mentoring. I opened the simulation session with a bit of the history of WISER in celebration of our 25th anniversary.
Our plenary sessions included out of town experts Dr. William “Bill” C. McGaghie from Northwestern University School of Medicine, Dr. Chris Muckler from Duke University School of Nursing, and Dr. Ross Scalese, from the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education. Our local expertise during the plenary sessions was provided by Dr. Joseph Goode from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing.  The program was fantastic and was followed up with some in-depth workshops on debriefing and research. We are already looking forward to next year’s symposium.
At the beginning of summer, we had the opportunity to demonstrate what we do to our UPMC System Leadership. The UPMC Board of Director’s Quality Patient care committee held their quarterly meeting at WISER. The event started with a brief overview of the current activities of WISER with a focus on patient safety initiatives. We included a live testimonial of a subject matter expert who has been working with WISER to bring his idea to fruition. The second half provided a hands-on tour of WISER allowing the board members of this important committee to see the challenges faced by healthcare teams in clinical practice. The board was also provided immersive learning opportunities to understand first-hand the education and training that we provide to our healthcare workforce.
Dr. Barry Issenberg, Director of the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education at the University of Miami, Dr. John O’Donnell, Associate Director of WISER, and I traveled to China to provide simulation faculty training as well as conduct a course in Simulation Education Research in June at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Later in the fall John and I had the opportunity to travel to Da Nang, Vietnam to conduct faculty training for simulation.
We have had a number of publications this year but are particularly proud of our paper “Physician Versus Nonphysician Instruction: Evaluating an Expert Curriculum-Competent Facilitator Model for Simulation-Based Central Venous Catheter Training” which was finally published in August of 2019 in Simulation in Healthcare. Our study demonstrated that competent [non-physician] trained facilitators using an expert curriculum, could instruct novices how to place central lines in the simulation environment just as well as our physician educators. You can check out the abstract here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31116170 Very exciting stuff. More to come…..
We had another big win! Our internal operations star, Mr. Martin “Marty” Mayer, CHSOS was promoted to Manager of Simulation Services. Marty leads our WISER technical operators who make all of our magic possible and plays a critical role in facilitating the ongoing relationships with our WISER Course Directors and Faculty to ensure success for the ongoing work in simulation.
So, all in all, its shaping up to be an amazing year at WISER! Thank you to all of you from near and afar who support our important mission improving healthcare through education and simulation.
Until Next Time,
Happy Simulating,
Paul

P.S.
For more information and thoughts on simulation, I invite you to visit my blog at www.simulatinghealthcare.net and connect with me on Facebook

Consider a Stay at WISER with Our Visiting Scholars Program

 DuyTan Final PresentationsWISER has an extremely active Visiting Scholars program that receives both international and national scholars interested in furthering their education and simulation knowledge base.  As part of our Scholars programs, some of our visitors develop and implement scholarly projects.  These projects range from the design and development of a simulation-based curriculum to designing and even implementing a research study!  When scholars begin to think about their project, they are assigned a mentor, who is often a WISER staff member.  The mentor meets with the scholar monthly to support the development of their project.  Throughout this process, our scholars are provided with the knowledge base and tools to make their projects successful!  It is a great experience getting to know our Visiting Scholars and to help them create a product that they can return home with and implement at their Universities and Hospitals. Established Professional Development programs could be a few days to two weeks, with Preceptorships lasting several months, and Fellowships that extend from one-to-two-years.

Put Your Trust in Our WISER Operations Team

WISER’s Simulation Specialists have vast clinical and simulation experience that are utilized every day to assist course directors, facilitators, participants, and visitors. Our Simulation Specialists support programs at 9 different locations spread throughout the UPMC Health System. Their clinical experience ranges from prehospital care to anesthesia. Most specialists have over 5 years of experience in the health care simulation industry and two of them with over 20 years experience.
 
All Simulation Specialists who are eligible, are CHSOS (Certified Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialists) certified, ACLS and BLS instructors, and facilitators for various programs here at WISER.
 
With this level of expertise, WISER can supply the highest level of support to those developing, teaching, or taking programs. In addition, all Simulation Specialists are facilitators for WISER programs that focus on the simulation operations industry. These programs include: Tech Sim Onsite, How to Run a Successful Simulation Center, and Designing or Enhancing Your Simulation Center.
 
 Allow WISER’s 25 years of experience to help you hone your simulation skills and knowledge.
WISER’s Visiting Scholars Program offers customized curriculum to meet your simulation needs including Operations, Curriculum Development, Information Technology, and Center Management.
https://www.wiser.pitt.edu/sites/wiser/training/simTraining.asp

On the Road to Vietnam!

Drs. Paul Phrampus and John O’Donnell travelled to Da Nang, Vietnam to conduct simulation faculty development programs. They had the good fortune to be joined by WISER collaborators Professor Ismail Saiboon from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, and Dr. Chi Wei “Thomas” Lin from Taipei Medical University in Taiwan.
 
WISER has partnered to assist Duy Tan University in the development of a simulation program to support their schools of health sciences. Part of the multi-year agreement provided in-residence training at WISER for core teams of faculty of the Duy Tan to rapidly develop simulation leadership expertise. This past Summer, we shared much about the DTU faculty experience here at WISER via our various social media channels.
 
Drs. Phrampus and O’Donnell then introduced the next phase of our development pathway by travelling to Da Nang and touring their simulation center, which is in the final phases of construction. The pair also teamed up with the core teams who studied at WISER to provide two programs for a broader range of Duy Tan Faculty interested in Simulation.
 
Drs. Phrampus and O’Donnell also co-directed the Improving Simulation Instructional Methods (iSIM) - Fundamentals course which focuses on scenario design and an introduction to debriefing.
 
Finally, the visit concluded with an advanced debriefing workshop. The attendees significantly valued the training and look forward to more opportunities in the future.
 
John and Paul were very happy as their hosts were most gracious, and Da Nang, being very close to the sea, was an amazing place for seafood dinners!
Dr. John O'Donnell Introducing the concept of debriefing


Dr. Paul Phrampus, allowing the participants to dissect the design of a scenario


Watching our new faculty take the lead is quite exhilerating!
*iSIM 2020 dates are set for March, May, September, and November! Join us for this internationally renowned, two-day immersive program that helps educators to improve their skills in simulation-based healthcare education. A collaborative effort between WISER and the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education at the University of Miami, iSIM serves as an introduction to help those interested in furthering their skills as instructors in simulation education. Class sizes are kept small as we emphasize hands-on activities and active participation to produce maximum simulation-based instruction skill acquisition.
Data Collection Galore!
WISER recently had 114 third year Pharmacy students go through the first part of their Capstone class. The class includes a series of interactions with a standardized patient and standardized colleague and is used as an initial training simulation for the students. These interactions are observed by faculty and scored using our Event Logging Application (ELA). The application scores them on dozens of criteria for both interactions and allows for detailed comments for each criterion. This results in thousands of data points for this class. This scoring is summarized for each student, and a detailed email is automatically generated for them with highlights in areas of improvement, as well as the faculty members' comments. Students will use this feedback to prepare for the exam class in late November. The ELA has been instrumental in streamlining the feedback process and eliminating hours of tedious paperwork for the Pharmacy faculty. Good luck to the students on their upcoming exams!
iSIM – Improving Simulation Instructional Methods
is the faculty development program for you!
Next class dates: March 30 - 31, 2020
More Information at https://www.isimcourse.com/
WISE(R) Use of Social Media
The messenger pigeon, the telegraph, the fax … ways that we used to stay in touch. Today, it’s much less complicated courtesy of social media. While we enjoy compiling our WISER Highlights, exciting news and events occur much more frequently than every quarter here at WISER. In fact, you can stay in touch with us daily via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel as we post WISER Minutes, helpful video tutorials, and vlogs. Our latest endeavor is our Instagram account where we are free to express ourselves in a more artistic fashion - see high definition photos of our simulation equipment, throwback & flashback shots of vintage WISER, and more. As a friend of WISER, please follow us on social media and help spread the word!
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Website
Email
Instagram
Copyright © 2019 WISER, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.