A new healthcare simulation job or career is an incredibly exciting opportunity which is worth a celebration. Whether completely new to clinical simulation or an experienced healthcare simulationist, a new role can be a great change with many new opportunities. This article by Erin Carn-Bennett, RN, MSN, will explore the first week of a new healthcare simulation role and some tips on how to hit the ground successfully in a new clinical simulation job opportunity.
Re Read The Contract and Be Prepared
There is a lot of use to re-read the contract and job description of the new healthcare simulation role to understand roles and responsibilities for the new job prior to the first day on the job. This can assist to get into a headspace of expectations of the new role and the daily operations of the healthcare simulation program or organization as a new employee. The re-evaluation of the contract can also assist to formulate questions as a new employee for management within the first week or months.
As a new employee, aim to try and spend time with the healthcare simulation program manager as soon as possible (hopefully on the first day) to make both an orientation and education plan. Orientation of a new staff member will differ dependant on previous experience levels and the role applied for. Orientation may require close mentorship and training for an extended timeframe if new to clinical simulation alongside a clear education and career plan.
Know About Expected Study Requirements
Some workplaces may have an expectation in regards to post graduate study and/or certification for certain clinical simulation roles. Spend time with management to ensure that timeframes for completion are clear, and that adequate time and study leave is given for the employee to be able to meet this expectation. As a new employee, plan early to factor all of this into workloads and outside work commitments.
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Building A Professional Development Plan For The Clinical Simulation Facilitator to learn more!
Get to know the team both internally and externally to the healthcare simulation program or organization. An important element of clinical simulation is the skillset to network and connect with others. Spend time to get to know people in the team and connect with them, in order to forge connections to provide high quality clinical simulation experiences in the future together.
Conversation Starters to Get to Know the Team May Include:
- Clinical backgrounds and if still working clinically
- Journey into healthcare simulation
- Personal “why” for career in clinical simulation
- Wishes to do different if started again
- Additional training completed
- Special interest areas
- Support resource recommendations internal, external and online
- Organization memberships and affiliations and why
Negotiate Specific Support for Success
Frequent supervision, mentorship or coaching from a more senior member of the team or an external provider can be incredibly useful to ensure that new employees are on the right track to succeed in a new healthcare simulation role. Provision of this service can assist to make new employees feel supported and valued in their clinical simulation role. Although trained healthcare simulation educators and debriefers have many skills required for this service, this is another skillset that can be acquired with additional training for example: A Certificate in Supervision.
Coaching, mentorship or supervision partners very well alongside clinical simulation skills and can be an incredibly useful additional skillsets for healthcare simulation debriefers to acquire as an adult learner. If these are not possible through internal sources they can be utilized from external providers or with negotiations with others with this as an interest from other organizations. Mentorship can be incredibly powerful, but should be negotiated with clear expectations from both the mentor and mentee whether in a paid or unpaid capacity.
The online healthcare simulation community can be an incredibly useful resource for both the new clinical simulation educator or the seasoned healthcare simulationist. Social media such as Facebook, X and LinkedIn can be a great place to start to find useful accounts to follow and to gain regular updates from the international healthcare simulation community. Accounts that are worth following include: clinical simulation vendors, world leaders in healthcare simulation and also accounts such as HealthySimulation.com!
Healthy Simulation has a huge number of online learning courses, webinars and on a number of topics and many count towards CE/CME credits with certificates through either individual or group subscriptions. There is also a large number of free webinars that are available on a wide range of topics. Healthysimulation.com has also launched free global healthcare simulation community discussion boards where the international healthcare simulation community can connect with one another and share resources which is a worthwhile join.
Find out about organizational structures and where clinical simulation fits into this. For example there should be a relationship between the healthcare organizations clinical governance and clinical excellence structures and the healthcare simulation team. The relationship, structure, feedback mechanisms and communication flows will vary from one organization to another.
In a new healthcare simulation role gain awareness of the program’s organizational affiliations and memberships, expected or potential conference attendances, education leave provisions and budgets. Awareness of these provisions can assist to map in the years ahead education and conference expectations. There should also be early consideration of vacation time and when this will be taken in the first year of work. A change of role can take a lot out of employees and self care should be prioritised in order to prevent burn out. Some clinical simulation programs will close down for set dates of the year, which needs to be factored in while accumulating leave and making plans for future vacations.
A change of job into a new healthcare simulation role is an incredible opportunity to make the most of. In this article discussion has centered around what to do in the first week of a new healthcare simulation job in order to start off well. Suggestions have been made around how to connect with team members, where to gather support and information from and how to plan ahead for success.
