April 14, 2021By Lance Baily

*NEW* Systems-Focused Simulation, Debriefing Online Course from Simulation Canada

Healthcare simulation organizations Simulation Canada and Healthcare Systems Simulation International are offering a six-week virtual interactive course on how to harness systems-focused simulation and debriefing to improve patient safety, operational efficiencies and care quality. This course is evidence informed, includes easy-to-use tools and cognitive aids, and provides a clear road map to success. Simulation Canada’s international and interprofessional team members are using this course as another opportunity to lead clinicians, educators, researchers, mentors and innovators in clinical simulation for systems integration with a proven track record of success.

This collaborative course encompasses a six-week virtual flipped-learning approach with a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities. Asynchronous elements include video lectures, readings, assignments and online discussions. There are also weekly live webinars so participants can connect with expert facilitators and peers, and the live webinar sessions vary between 60 and 90 minutes. The May and June live sessions take place on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. ET/9 a.m. MST on the following days:

  • May 4: Course modules open
  • May 11: Webinar 1
  • May 18: Webinar 2
  • May 25: Webinar 3
  • June 8: Webinar 4
  • June 15: Webinar 5

“This course will give simulationists a new and powerful way to apply their skills – by using simulation to investigate and improve issues with health system performance and patient safety,” Simulation Canada President and CEO Timothy Willett said. “The idea has evolved from the years we have been running the National Forum on Simulation for Quality & Safety and hearing the many ways system-focussed simulations are improving healthcare.”


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All course facilitators, drawn from Simulation Canada faculty and the HSSI team, are experts in system-level applications of clinical simulation and integration into safety/quality improvement activities. This course is designed for all healthcare practitioners, clinical simulation educators and administrators, quality and patient safety leaders, and hospital administrators. Participants should have experience with either healthcare simulation in an educational context or with patient safety or quality improvement in healthcare prior to taking the course.

Course learning objectives are to be able to describe how to apply simulation to system-level patient safety and quality improvement efforts, and to solve an organization’s operational and clinical issues. This includes being able to plan and implement healthcare simulation activities to enhance a patient-safety or quality-improvement initiative. Additionally, the course will teach participants how to facilitate and debrief a system-focused clinical simulation.

Throughout the course, module topics will include quality improvement and patient safety science, complex adaptive healthcare systems, quality improvement and the HSSI road map, measurement and evaluation, and human factors considerations. Other course material will focus on integrating simulation for various PS/QI purposes, such as policy and procedure development/testing/implementation, latent safety threat detection, clinical space assessment and design, safety culture improvement, etc.

Upon completion of the course, participant takeaways will include a toolkit of proven design and implementation strategies. This will allow participants to integrate clinical simulation quality and safety initiatives within their organization, institution or facility. Learners can expect to be introduced to successful examples of systems-integration work across Canada, including in-situ simulation. Further, modules will explain systems-focused scenario co-design, pre-briefing, facilitation and debriefing. Participants will learn how to complete an analysis of systems-based findings and operationalizing to further action. The goal is to set participants up for successful organizational learning.


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“This course is aligned with our ongoing advocacy work to see simulation expand beyond the education sector into the healthcare quality and patient safety sector, where there is tremendous potential for simulation to make a difference,” added Willett. “Participants will take away practical skills and tools they can use to plan, facilitate and debrief system-focussed simulations.”

The cost of this course is $990 + applicable taxes. Course fees include tuition, access to the course website, education materials and the toolkit. The fee excludes technology used to access online learning.

More About Simulation Canada



Simulation Canada (formerly known as SIM-one and the Canadian Network for Simulation in Healthcare) is Canada’s interprofessional, cross-sector network for the advancement of healthcare simulation. SIM-one and the Canadian Network for Simulation in Healthcare completed their integration in September 2017 to establish Simulation Canada, a new, interprofessional simulation network. Ever since, the nonprofit organization has served to connect clinical simulation community members, facilities and resources across Canada and beyond. Simulation Canada advocates for and advances medical learning through simulations to benefit patient safety and care.

Simulation Canada’s vision is a world where exceptional patient care and outcomes through healthcare simulation are universal. Therefore, the organization’s mission is to improve healthcare education, patient safety and quality while connecting disparate healthcare and human service professions, disciplines and care-delivery sectors. This has led Simulation Canada to establish six guiding values: disruption, respect, best practices, community, collaboration and transparency.

Simulation Canada is an inclusive interprofessional network with representation from all healthcare professions and disciplines as well as various sectors, including colleges and universities, hospitals, government offices and industries. The organization also includes human services such as security, firefighting, social work, early childhood education, developmental service work and more. With a dedicated community of more than 2,000 individuals, Simulation Canada promotes involvement in all levels of healthcare simulation.

More About HSSI

Healthcare Systems Simulation International is an international and inter-professional organization dedicated to working with people and organizations to offer both consulting and education services. The HSSI team has a proven track record with using clinical simulation and human factors methods to positively influence clinical outcomes, operational efficiencies, patient safety, systems design and testing (space, process, policy), clinical commissioning, simulation program development, and the integration of healthcare teams with systems. The organization’s core values include respect, using evidence-based methods, frameworks and strategies, commitment and collaboration.

Learn More About Simulation Canada’s Online Course


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