May 14, 2021By HealthySimulation.com Writing Team

NHET-Sim Workshops on SP Methodology & Hybrid Simulation

The National Health Education and Training in Simulation (NHET-Sim) program is a nationwide training initiative for professionals and their educators, aimed at improving clinical training capacity. The program is designed for anyone who currently uses or intends to use healthcare simulation as an educational method to support the development of clinical learners and professionals. Developed and reviewed by leaders in the simulation field across Australia and internationally, the program consists of both online modules and in-person workshops on simulation-based education. Upcoming program workshops include presentation “Module S5: Simulated Patient Methodology and Module” and “Module S6: Patient focused simulation,” both on Monday, May 17 and on Tuesday, May 25 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. (Melbourne, Australia time, AEST, UTC/GMT +10 hours).

Amid COVID-19 restrictions, the NHET-Sim program launched this series of virtual workshops during Healthcare Simulation Week 2020. The workshops were reformatted from their original face-to-face format (usually offered locally in Australia), to be deliverable via Zoom. This new platform made offering these program sessions to international participants possible.

To-date, NHET-Sim has hosted over 950 workshops with over 4,000 participants having completed the program. Workshops are currently offered for modules C2, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S9, S10 and S12. To host workshops, NHET-Sim consolidates online content, then the organization works to enhance current practice, shares tips and tricks and provides an invaluable networking experience.

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Covering simulated patients, Module S5 introduces some core facets of simulation methodology. The focus is on preparing SPs to work in healthcare simulations, and the module describes a systematic approach to SP methodology. The module also addresses issues at the level of clinical training program (e.g., scenario development, alignment with curriculum, assessment, etc.), and at the level of the individual SP (e.g., casting, performance training, etc.).

Covering patient-focused simulation, Module S6 explores the expanding practice of hybrid simulations. When clinicians perform examinations and procedures on patients, they are expected to manage a complex set of skills (e.g., psychomotor, communication), while exercising clinical judgment and other aspects of professionalism. NHET often teaches components of these complex skill sets separately. Hybrid or blended simulations enable trainees to bring all these skills together to establish the “combining of simulators” – usually an SP with a skills trainer (e.g., bench top, VR simulator, etc.).

This module also revisits some of the concepts in Module S5 — including simulated patient methodology — but considers their application to procedural and operative skills in patient-focused simulations. The session further explores the contribution of hybrid simulations to sequential simulations and the role of feedback, especially as offered by SPs.

Both sessions will be facilitated by the NHET-Sim program lead, Professor Debra Nestel. Each module workshop is offered at AU$200, but a discounted rate of AU$350 is offered to those who choose to attend both modules’ workshops. The price includes access to NHET-Sim e-learning platform (usually priced at AU$120 for non-Australian-based practitioners).

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More About Debra Nestel

Debra Nestel, PhD, FSSH, is the NHET-Sim program lead as well as professor of simulation education in healthcare, Monash University, and professor of surgical education, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne, Australia. Nestel is editor-in-chief, Advances in Simulation, the journal of the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine. She is program lead for the graduate programs in surgical education (Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) and the graduate programs in surgical science (Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne).

Nestel leads the national program for simulation educators (NHET-Sim) and a virtual network in simulated patient methodology. She has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers in health professions education, edited books on simulated patient methodology (2015), health are simulation (2018), surgical education (2019) and research methods in healthcare simulation (2019). Nestel has won many awards and prizes for her work in simulation, including the Australian Awards for University Teaching, the Ray Page Lifetime Contribution to Simulation Award (Simulation Australasia), a presidential citation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and is the first Australia-based fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.

NHET-Sim History

The now disestablished, Health Workforce Australia (HWA) invested in faculty development in response to the consistently identified need in commissioned surveys of all health professions in relation to current and projected use of simulation as an educational method. This investment in people complemented the significant capital investment in simulation infrastructure. HWA closed on Aug. 6, 2014, with essential functions transferring to the Federal Department of Health.

The NHET-Sim Programme has its foundations within the AusSETT Programme developed by Edith Cowan University, Flinders University, Monash University (lead), the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and Queensland Health. The AusSETT Programme was delivered in 2011 and 2012 to over 230 simulation educators and technicians across Australia.

NHET-Sim has a different focus to AusSETT and therefore the content is also different. AusSETT adopted a “train-the-trainer” approach while NHET-Sim in intended to support simulation educators and technicians to work directly with simulation-based education. The NHET-Sim Monash team and colleagues from Flinders University have refashioned all AusSETT modules and created new modules to meet the goals of the NHET-Sim programme.

Experts in the national and international simulation community have reviewed all modules, which were renewed in October 2018. Participants who complete the NHET-Sim Programme may receive credits for entry to graduate certificate-level programs.