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Director's Corner
For many people, a new year symbolizes a moment to reminisce on the previous year’s achievements and opportunities for growth while looking forward to the promise of new beginnings. That intention couldn’t be truer for the Simulation Learning, Evaluation, Assessment, and Research Network (SimLEARN) as we kick off 2023 and expand our journey to further impact Veteran health care through simulation and innovation.
At the link below, discover the first ever Veterans eXpereince, the groundwork that is laid out for the launch of Simulation Validation, Evaluation, and Testing (SimVET), and read more about the pilot of SimLEARN’s digital twin simulation system that will be released this year.
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Pictured from left to right (Judy Miller, Dr. Bonnie Haupt, Dr. Sui Unzelman, Lt. Col. Staley (sitting), DoD ALS/BLS/PALS team members and Scott Hunter, far right)
With prescience, the Tampa VA Advanced Simulation Center with the VA Tampa Healthcare System’s infection control and disaster emergency management program worked with Echo Healthcare to develop the very first manikin that portrays a patient afflicted with monkeypox (Mpox). From the hair to the eyes, hands, fingernails and toenails, this first of its kind, high-fidelity manikin represents what is possible when VA and private industry come together to prepare for public health emergencies.
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 Halloween was a fitting time to have a new cohort of Post-Baccalaureate Registered Nurse Residents (PBRNR) learn about safe blood administration. The Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida reimagined learning through simulation with a blood escape room called “Can You Escape the Horror?”
The Institute for Learning, Education and Development’s (ILEAD) game-based learning immersive product, Virtual Reality Simulated Delirium Environment (VRSDE) for Geriatrics and Extended Care, won the Innovation and People’s Choice Awards at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC). The conference was held between November 28 and December 2 in Orlando, Florida.
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VA Black Hills Healthcare System in Fort Meade, South Dakota created a mental health escape room called ‘Don’t Wait, Reach Out’ to prepare their staff who may encounter suicidal patients. The education tool was implemented during September Suicide Prevention Month where learners were presented with a suicidal patient that required appropriate interventions to ‘escape’ the room.
 The Albany Stratton Veterans Administration Medical Center Simulation Center Director, Darlene Delancey, had the foresight to dedicate space in a Veterans Integrated Services Network building for experiential learning. Her dream would be realized with a grand opening and ribbon cutting in July 2019, crushed by COVID in 2020 and then resiliently reemerge in 2022.
Clinical dietitians from the Nutrition & Food Services Department at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System partnered with simulation staff to create an immersive simulation experience for dietetic interns with the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University Dietetic Internship Program. The simulation allowed the interns to become competent in bedside assessment and education performance, blood pressure and blood glucose measurement, nutrition focused physical exams (NFPE), placement of nasogastric feeding tubes and the use of enteral feeding pumps.
The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (CTVHCS) launched their Center for Innovation and Learning (CIL) during Healthcare Simulation Week in September last year. Since its opening, the CIL has improved community partnerships, allowing the team to perform simulations that address concerns from stakeholders related to time-management and prioritization of patient care.
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The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (CTVHCS) launched their Center for Innovation and Learning (CIL) during Healthcare Simulation Week in September last year. Since its opening, the CIL has improved community partnerships, allowing the team to perform simulations that address concerns from stakeholders related to time-management and prioritization of patient care.
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The SimLEARN Innovation Center for Education (SLICE) is proud to announce that the following six sites have become cells:
- VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (Nashville, TN)
- Northern Arizona Veterans Affairs HCS (Prescott, AZ)
- Fargo VA Health Care System (Fargo, ND)
- VA Black Hills Healthcare Center (Hot Springs, SD)
- Northport VA Medical Center (Northport, NY)
- VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend HCS (Harlingen, TX)
- VA Dayton HCS (Dayton, OH)
- VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (West Los Angeles VAMC) (Los Angeles, CA)
- El Paso VA Health Care System (El Paso, TX)
- VA Ann Arbor Health Care System LTC Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center (Ann Arbor, MI)
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