The New Zealand Association for Simulation in Healthcare (NZASH) Conference 2024 is underway from Thursday 14th until Friday 15th November 2024 at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand. Pre conference workshops occurred on Wednesday 13th November 2024. The theme of the conference is “Sim Enable Enabling Health Professionals in Delivering Best Care Simulation”. This article by Erin Carn-Bennett, RN, MSN will cover from the conference floor updates of the NZASH Sim Enable conference.
The New Zealand Association for Simulation in Healthcare (NZASH), is a national organization for healthcare simulation in New Zealand. NZASH is a forum for education and a network of professionals interested in healthcare simulation. The nonprofit NZASH organization represents doctors, nurses, educationalists, clinical simulation technicians, paramedics, allied health, academics, industry groups and managers who use clinical simulation as a tool for education and research to enhance safety and quality for patients. As an official media partner, Healthysimulation.com is in attendance at the 2024 conference to connect with NZASH and Healthysimulation.com readers!
As discussed above the 2024 NZASH conference overall theme is “SimEnable” which aims to enable health professionals to deliver best care healthcare simulation. NZASH 2024 is underway and is a fantastic conference. Multiple internationally renowned clinical simulationists and a recent Oscar winner in visual effects are attendees and speakers this year. NZASH also partners with international organizations such as Healthysimulation.com and SimGhosts who are great additions to the NZASH conference programme. Vendors at the NZASH Sim Enable 2024 conference include: Laerdal, Chivaune Technologies, Hartwell Simulation, MedicFX, Mediquip, Pracmed NZ and Spark Health.
The conference location Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre has been designed as Ōtautahi Christchurch’s ‘gathering place’. Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is the first of New Zealand’s new generation convention centers, an international standard venue that showcases the very best of New Zealand. The pre conference meeting on Wednesday 13th November was successful and day one of conference on Thursday 14th November has also showcased a number of high quality workshops and speakers.
The President of NZASH Dr Brad Peckler opened the NZASH conference with thanks to members and board members for their hard work and dedication to ensure that NZASH is the society as is today. Brad spoke of the many challenges in the New Zealand healthcare workforce currently, but described healthcare simulation as a “bright spot” for healthcare professionals at such a challenged time. This was followed by Dr Sarah Jackson the National Chief of Quality and Patient Safety at Te Whatu Ora who spoke about clinical simulation current state as well as future foundations to be structurally challenged with national networks in development for the Health New Zealand public healthcare system.
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Kiwi Sim: All About NZASH! The New Zealand Association for Simulation in Healthcare to learn more!
NZASH Sim Enable 2024 has a mix of plenary presentations and hands-on workshops to cater to the nature of the healthcare simulation industry. There will also be an expert panel discussion on Friday. The keynote speakers for the 2024 NZASH conference are: Victoria Brazil, Robyn Clay-Williams, and Eric Saindon. There are a number of other presenters of workshops and other talks with their speaker profiles available on the NZASH conferences website. HealthySimulation.com Founder/CEO Lance Baily is at NZASH to present his workshops on Virtual Reality and on Becoming a Hollywood Director to Increase Simulation Realism! Other key speakers underway include:
Dr. Victoria Brazil Shares Tools to Guide Clinical Simulation Process
Victoria is an emergency physician, educator, simulation specialist and healthcare team coach. She is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Director of the Simulation Service at Gold Coast Health, and leads the Bond University Translational Simulation Collaborative. Victoria’s main interests are in connection of education with patient care, through translational simulation in healthcare, and in the development of high performance healthcare teams. Victoria has authored over 80 peer reviewed publications in health professions education, healthcare simulation and teamwork in healthcare. Victoria also writes for the International Clinician Educators Network blog and is Senior Editor at Advances in Simulation. Victoria is co-producer of Simulcast, a podcast about healthcare simulation.
Victoria’s day one keynote was titled “Translational Simulation – Shaping Healthcare Teams and Systems”. Victoria delivered an incredibly articulate discussion about clinical simulations’ relationship to health and safety systems and teams in health organizations. Victoria discussed how to complete translational simulation and shared many resources and publications of use to all conference attendees. Victoria completed her keynote address with demonstrations of how artificial intelligence is used at the Bond University Simulation Service and predictions of points of interest in this field for the future.
Victoria also has another workshop and presentation scheduled including: “Visually Enhanced Mental Simulation (VEMS) – The Surprising Power of Laminated Patients” and “Ten Ways to do Harm Using Simulation – And Strategies to Mitigate”. Victoria is a highly anticipated speaker that NZASH are absolutely thrilled to be able to showcase. Victoria’s performance so far has been eagerly and well received as a crowd favorite.
Professor Robyn Clay-Williams Brings Human Factors into Perspective
Robyn delivered a workshop on day one of NZASH: ” Testing and Creating Better Workspaces Using Simulation”. Robyn leads a research program at Macquarie University, Australia, in human factors and resilient health care. Robyn’s expertise is in the creation of health systems that can function effectively in the presence of complexity and uncertainty. Robyn ran a human factors workshop titled: Testing and Creating better workspaces using Simulation” for day one of NZASH which engaged participants to apply the SEIPS framework to different healthcare errors.
Robyn is also presenting a talk called: “Human Factors in Healthcare – Improving Safety and Experience for Patients and Clinicians” on day two.
The first day of the conference closed out with an incredible presentation firstly from Jane Tyerman and Marian Luctkar-Flude from Can-Sim (Canadian Alliance of Nurse Educators using Simulation) who discussed the incredible virtual simulation resources and beyond openly available from Can-Sim.
Finally, the day finished with a presentation from Eric Saindon titled “Creative Solutions for Problem Solving”. Eric Saidon has been a Visual Effects Supervisor for hugely successful films such as: original Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Alita: Battle Angel, and all three Hobbit films are just the tip of the iceberg. Eric joined Wētā FX in 1999 as a Creatures / Character Supervisor, where he was pivotal in the creation of Gollum for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Eric first moved into a VFX Supervisor role in 2006 for X-Men: The Last Stand. Since then, he has served in this capacity for most of his projects, while also managing pre-production and on-set duties. Between blockbusters, Eric has shown a deft hand to guide smaller projects like Pete’s Dragon and David Lowery’s The Green Knight. Eric has won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Avatar: The Way of Water. He has also won five Visual Effects Society Awards. This is an incredibly well anticipated talk which compared film making to healthcare simulation.
The NZASH Sim Enable conference has been a successful and connecting event with a pre conference workshop day on Wednesday 13th November, followed by two days of jammed packed conference action. The line up of speakers has been full of captivation and showcased so much incredibly on day one and another day tomorrow is sure to deliver more inspiration for all the healthcare simulation enthusiasts that are present!
