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Construction of NSC's second floor. Photo courtesy of SimLEARN.
By: Franklin Espinal, Associate Director, Support Operations, SimLEARN
Orlando, Fla. - Orlando VA Health Care System (OVAHCS) is expanding operations by adding a new second-floor addition of approximately 22,400 square feet above SimLEARN’s National Simulation Center (NSC) at the campus of the Orlando Medical Center, located in Lake Nona "Medical City" area, to support heavy wet-lab research, along with office space. The existing building was designed to support vertical expansion of three additional stories.
Read more here.
By: Lisa Baker, MEd, BSN, Director, Clinical Learning and Innovation, SimLEARN VHA National Program Director, Resuscitation Education and Innovation (REdI) program, Orlando, FL
Orlando, Fla. - New and revised The Joint Commission (TJC) requirements for resuscitation standards in hospitals and critical access hospitals go into effect January 1, 2022. The revised requirements aim to reduce unnecessary variations in practice and encourage hospitals to adopt a more proactive and responsive approach to resuscitation and post-resuscitation care to maximize patient survival with the best possible neurological outcomes.
The Resuscitation Education and Innovation (REdI) program, in its commitment to VHA’s journey as a high reliability and learning organization strives to provide employees with the right tools, processes, and technologies to respond during a medical emergency. REdI has taken a proactive approach in resuscitation education solutions to ensure we have a workforce prepared to respond to a cardiac arrest.
Read more about REdI's response here.
 Beth Davis RN (left) and Dr. Anderson (right) work together during an interprofessional emergency event simulation. Interprofessional team in-situ simulation helps professionals to identify issues which may impact outcomes for Veterans. Photo courtesy of Shelley Lee.
By: Shelley Lee, DNP, RN,C-NIC, CMSRN, CPHRM, CPSO, BC-NPD, Clinical Nurse Educator, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN
Nashville, Tenn. - How do you see your role as a Simulation Educator? Do you characterize yourself as a staff development specialist, an educator, a competency assessor or do you see yourself as an integral member of an interprofessional Quality, Safety, Risk team? Take a moment to consider how your work impacts the patient. You are indeed a key member of the patient safety and quality team who helps to ensure that VA structures and processes result in the patient outcomes that our Veterans deserve.
The simulations you provide for staff support enhanced learning and competence. Perhaps you haven’t considered how those simulations might also provide additional opportunities to impact the operations, processes, and patient outcomes at the VA.
Read more here.
By: VHA SimLEARN Staff
Five Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers welcomed seven first year Fellows and two second year Fellows to the VA Interprofessional Advanced Fellowship in Clinical Simulation this past quarter. According to the Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA), “the purpose of the Fellowship is to develop leaders with vision, knowledge, and commitment to implement, teach, evaluate, and advance simulation-based strategies to improve healthcare for Veterans and the Nation” (OAA, 2020)*.
The VHA medical centers are in Durham, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Tampa. The Simulation Learning, Evaluation, Assessment, and Research Network, or SimLEARN, functions as the Fellowship’s Coordinating Center and is in Orlando, Florida.
General information can be obtained from https://www.va.gov/oaa/ from any device connecting to the Internet. VA employees can learn more about the OAA Fellowships by using this Share Point link https://bit.ly/301OHjD *
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By: Lisa Hubbard, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, National Clinical Faculty Instructor, SimLEARN
Orlando, Fla. - Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are in the top five diagnoses for which women Veterans seek care in all age groups in the VA (Sourcebook: Women Veterans in the Veterans Health Administration, Volume 4, Longitudinal Trends in Sociodemographics, Utilization, Health Profile, and Geographic Distribution (sharepoint.com)). The most common of these conditions include shoulder, knee, back and hip pain. Despite the high prevalence in MSK conditions in the women Veteran population, training for primary care providers in musculoskeletal care for women has been minimal.
Identifying a need for MSK training, historically, SimLEARN has collaborated with VHA Women’s Health team. Recently, Women’s Health hosted their first hybrid conference that included virtual/face to face sessions, where I had the pleasure of teaching for them. This training was for primary care providers to hone their skills in treating women Veterans and provided an overview of using telemedicine via VA Video Connect (VVC) for the assessment of common musculoskeletal conditions in women.
Read more about this MSK training here.
 Photo: (From left to right) Brandon Tyler, LPN; Abigayle Clarke, RN; and Matthew Romine, RN; practice emergency lifesaving skills on a high fidelity manikin during nurse orientation training. Photo courtesy of Truman VA.
By: Betsy Reeves, RN, MSN, Simulation Coordinator, Learning Organization, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital
Columbia, MO. - Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital’s Simulation Center recently became the second program in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Heartland Network (VISN-15), and one of only 17 throughout VA to achieve intermediate level simulation certification. As a nationally recognized program, Truman VA’s Simulation Center provides educational opportunities and serves as a resource for maintaining annual competencies for health professionals whose mission is to care for our nation’s heroes.
Truman VA’s state-of-the-art simulation facility features a model of a real patient room, complete with clinical equipment and a responder nurse call system that interacts with two high fidelity manikins. The center also features a Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) room with voice activated manikins (VAMs). Additionally, Truman VA has VAMs located throughout the medical center, as well as in each of the hospital’s eight community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs).
Reprinted with permission by Truman VA.
Read the full story (VA-email access only) in Truman VA's newsletter here.
Read the full story in the Columbia Missourian here.
Featured on VA Insider.
San Antonio, TX. - What started off with a few manikins and task trainers at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS) in San Antonio has grown into a full-blown Simulation Center primarily thanks to the efforts of Simulation Program Director, Debbie Bartoshevich.
STVHCS and Bartoshevich received some exciting news last month. The simulation center received SimLEARN Innovation Cell for Education (SLICE) accreditation.
Bartoshevich said STVHCS is now the sole accredited simulation center in VISN 17, and only the 11th center in the VA network.
Although proud of those stats, she said that is not why this accreditation is critical for South Texas.
“The certification allows our simulation center to support the deployment of a standardized, evidence-based simulation education, evaluation and data collection method,” Bartoshevich said.
Read the VA Insider article here. (Accessible only with a VA email.)
Photo courtesy of VA Insider.
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