Investments in expert healthcare simulation facilitators and programs can assist in maximizing predefined learning outcomes. Expert facilitators in clinical simulation can assist to ensure learning objectives of a healthcare simulation program are not only clearly defined and appropriate but also achieved. This article by Erin Carn-Bennett, RN, MSN will discuss why an investment by healthcare executives into clinical simulation experts when first starting out as a healthcare simulation program is a high return on investment.
Expert Healthcare Simulation Facilitators Value
Expert clinical simulation facilitators have a lot of experience and skill sets in the ability to tailor scenarios to meet the specific needs of healthcare simulation participants. Carefully curated clinical simulation experiences enable reflective debriefs that enhance the overall clinical simulation experience. These skills in healthcare simulation take a lot of time, mentorship and reflection time to be able to acquire.
Healthcare simulation experts have experience in how to ensure an appropriate level of realism and accuracy is achieved. Healthcare simulation scenarios are often complex medical scenarios that require a high level of clinical accuracy. This can be difficult to achieve and gauge as a novice clinical simulation facilitator.
Expert healthcare simulation facilitators with a lot of experience in clinical simulation scenario design and management can adjust and edit scenarios in real time in order to meet predefined learning outcomes. These actions accurately represent clinical challenges and ensure that healthcare simulation participants are exposed to authentic and relevant clinical situations through the powerful vessel of clinical simulation. As protected time for healthcare simulation scenarios is hard to acquire, an initial investment into an expert clinical simulation facilitator can be a wise investment in order to propel new facilitators and participants forward within a psychologically safe container guided by experienced facilitators.
Expert healthcare simulation facilitators have a high level skillset in order to optimize clinical team dynamics. In healthcare simulation scenarios, effective communication and collaboration are key between the faculty and clinical simulation participants. Expert clinical simulation facilitators are incredibly skilled at observations of group interactions and identification of areas for improvement. This is achieved through experiences in how to guide teams on how to enhance teamwork, leadership, and interpersonal skills to translate these clinical skills from the healthcare simulation scenarios to improved clinical care.
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Expert healthcare simulation facilitators know how to challenge clinical simulation participants’ critical thinking and decision-making processes until the adult learner has reached the steep edge of the learning curve. Facilitators who are highly skilled in healthcare simulation know how to pose deep debrief questions and assist to guide clinical simulation participants to be able to reflect on their actions in a psychologically safe yet often uncomfortable environment. Insights into alternative strategies and a strengths based approach is a skillset of the expert healthcare simulation facilitator. This promotes deeper learning through encouragement to make mistakes in clinical simulation and to then reflect on them. Reflections on mistakes contribute to healthcare simulation participants’ ability to be better prepared for clinical-based emergencies.
Management of Emotional and Stress Responses
Healthcare simulation often can evoke strong emotional responses, particularly in high-stakes clinical events such as critical incidents and emergency situations. Skilled healthcare simulation facilitators are trained to recognize and respond appropriately to emotions from clinical simulation participants. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators assist clinical simulation participants to reflect on individual and team-based performances in a psychologically safe manner.
Provision of Constructive Feedback
Psychologically safe constructive feedback is essential for the growth of individuals and teams. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators are highly skilled in the ability to be able to read the debrief room to provide carefully considered debrief questions that are honest, full of radical candor and challenge teams to reach their full potential. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators highlight strengths and also identify areas for improvement for clinical teams.
Safe Learning Environment with Strong Psychological Safety
Healthcare organization quality clinical care is dependent on a supportive and non-judgmental work environment where staff members are not blamed or shamed for making mistakes and are able to learn from mistakes. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators role model and assist to curate a psychologically safe culture in clinical simulation scenarios, which ensures that participants can take part in the clinical simulation without fear of negative consequences. An investment into expert healthcare simulation facilitators can role model to team members what psychological safe environments feel like and why this is so important to replicate and ripple to the rest of the organization outside of the clinical simulation experience.
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Complex Debrief Management
The debrief is the most important part of the healthcare simulation experience. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators are critical to be able to guide and maximize impact and learning from healthcare simulation debriefs. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators can navigate complex group dynamics with ease. These common team frictions are managed through guided reflections, and encourage clinical simulation participants to translate clinical skills acquired in the clinical simulation experience into real-world clinical practice. This translation of team and clinical skills acquisition from clinical simulation to clinical care maximizes the impact of education and investment into expert healthcare simulation facilitators.
Investment in expert facilitators is not just about an improvement in the healthcare simulation scenario at the time of education. Investment into expert facilitators is about an investment into health professionals long-term clinical skill and team work development. Experienced healthcare simulation facilitators assist clinical simulation participants to develop essential skills such as clinical judgment, leadership, teamwork, and improvements to patient safety. This is woven into clinical simulation scenario experience which can benefit not only the clinical simulation participants but also the novice facilitator as well.
As a novice healthcare simulation facilitator making mistakes in scenario design and delivery is part of the process to gain experience and skill acquisition. An investment into expert healthcaresimulation facilitators can help novice facilitators to avoid common errors at the expense of the psychological safety of healthcare simulation participants. Novice facilitators can acquire clinical simulation skills from expert facilitators through being role modeled to and coached by those with years of experience and mistakes they have learnt from. This can significantly progress the novice clinical simulation facilitators timeline towards becoming an expert in healthcare simulation practices.
As a healthcare simulation program grows, an expert facilitator is able to give guidance on how to scale up the healthcare simulation program in a guided manner. An experienced healthcare simulation facilitator can mentor less experienced facilitators which contributes to sustainability and continued success of the healthcare simulation program within the expansion process. An investment into expert clinical simulation facilitators as a healthcare simulation program begins can be crucial to both the success and effectiveness of the clinical simulation based education provided.
This article has discussed why the investment into expert healthcare simulation experts as a clinical simulation program starts out is a worthwhile return on investment. Expert healthcare simulation facilitators have experience in many facets of healthcare simulation which can take the novice healthcare simulation facilitator years to acquire. The expert healthcare simulation facilitator can assist a new clinical simulation program to progress forward at an accelerated rate and is an investment into personnel which should be considered for the new healthcare simulation program.
