U.S.-Based Regional Simulation Alliances, Collaboratives & Contacts
Across the United States, various regional simulation alliances and collaboratives exist to strengthen the health care simulation community on a local level. By engaging with professionals, colleagues and learners with different backgrounds across the industry, simulationists can better understand the state of clinical simulation and the direction in which the field is headed. This article lists numerous health care simulation alliances, collaboratives and their associated contacts. For those interested in engaging with their local simulation community, reach out to the following group contacts for more information on membership and simulation-based initiatives.
Arizona Simulation Network: The Arizona Simulation Network promotes excellence in health care education and research. Membership includes professional networking opportunities in person and via discussion board, conversations about simulation best-practice education and quarterly half-day educational and business meetings. The organization also offers an annual all-day conference included in the membership fee and support for members’ local organizations.
Contact: azsimnet@gmail.com
Denise Matus: denise.matus@gcu.edu
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Bay Area Simulation Collaborative: The Bay Area Simulation Collaborative (BASC) is comprised of representatives from schools of nursing and hospitals in the ten Bay Area counties. HealthImpact and the California Simulation Alliance (CSA) provide leadership for the BASC, which is one of seven regional simulation collaboratives in California. The BASC was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2006, developed as a regional demonstration model and has been replicated in various regions of the state and around the country.
Contact:
Lina Gage-Kelly: agage-kelly@samuelmerritt.edu
California Simulation Alliance: The California Simulation Alliance promotes simulation in health care to improve patient safety. It is a statewide network that serves as an information clearinghouse and umbrella for seven regional collaboratives that provide simulation education and research. The organization offers courses (which are preparatory for the Certification as Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE) exam), promotes research on simulation and serves as a resource for health care interprofessional faculty.
Contact:
Samantha Hanlon: samantha@healthimpact.org
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Capital Area Simulation Collaborative: The CASC is committed to providing a network of support for interprofessional simulation learning to service partners and academia in and around the greater Sacramento area. The CASC hosts mini-SUN (Simulation User Network) conferences at the Simulation Learning Center on the California State University, Sacramento, campus, in addition to biannual meetings that provide opportunities for research sharing, technical training, showcasing of new simulation equipment and networking. Service organizations represented in the CASC include Kaiser Roseville, Kaiser South Sacramento, Mercy Hospital Folsom, Mercy General Hospital, Mercy San Juan Hospital, Methodist Hospital, Sutter Medical Center Sacramento, UC Davis Medical Center, Woodland Healthcare and Veterans Hospital Sacramento.
Contact:
Cleona Cash: cleona.cash@yahoo.com
Central Valley Simulation Collaborative: The Central Valley Simulation Collaborative (CVSC) was formed in 2009 and stretches from Stanislaus to Bakersfield. The CVSC vision is to promote the incorporation of simulation into health care with the intention of improving the safety and quality of patient care. The organization’s goal is to sustain a simulation network that shares knowledge, experience, innovative ideas and material from those who have attended conferences, workshops and/or training. Due to the large region that the collaborative covers, the group meets twice a year.
Contact:
Marie Gilbert: mgilbert@mail.fresnostate.edu
Tara Lemoine: Tlemoine@valleychildrens.org
Chicagoland Nursing Simulation Interest Group: Chicagoland Nursing Simulation Interest Group (CNSIG) is a dedicated group of area simulation experts who come together to network and share ideas. The mission for CNSIG is to support excellence in nursing education through the collaboration of simulation.
Contact:
Laury Westbury: laury.westbury@elmhurst.edu
Colorado Simulation Collaborative: The Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence has convened a simulation collaborative for individuals using simulation to educate and enhance the education of nurses and nursing students working in education and service settings. The group’s mission is to bring those working in simulation together to share resources, enhance the quality and prevalence of simulation in health care throughout Colorado.
Contact:
Aurea Cunanan: Aurea@coloradonursingcenter.org
Florida Health Simulation Alliance: The core mission of the Florida Healthcare Simulation Alliance Affinity Group (FHSA-AG) is to promote quality health care simulation practices for academic and clinical environments in an effort to improve patient safety and patient outcomes across the state of Florida. FHSA-AG serves as a regional resource to facilitate collaboration, networking, development and integration of best practices for the delivery of simulation-based health care education. It will strive to support fledging simulation programs through direct mentorship and strengthen existing simulation programs through collaboration and shared best practices.
Contact: contact@floridahealthsimalliance.org
Inland Empire Simulation Collaborative: The Inland Empire Simulation Collaborative (IESC) was launched in the fall of 2011. There are many organizations within this area who develop and facilitate simulation-based learning activities within their programs and institutions, including hospital systems and educational entities. The purpose of the IESC is to provide valuable resources to these individuals and organizations. The IESC was revitalized in November 2015 after a meeting at California Baptist University hosted by the College of Nursing. The IESC meets every three months. If you would like to become involved in the IESC and/or attend one of the meetings, please contact them for the current schedule.
Contact:
Sarah Pearce: spearce@calbaptist.edu
Kansas City Regional Simulation Alliance: The Kansas City Regional Simulation Alliance (KCRSA) seeks to leverage the simulation learning community to accomplish together what cannot be done alone. Members will work together to foster growth in simulation education by connecting people and facilities, sharing best practices and preparing simulation educators and simulation technologists.
Contact:
Kathy Carver: kcarver@jccc.edu
Oklahoma Alliance for Healthcare Simulation: The Oklahoma Alliance for Healthcare Simulation is dedicated to improving the quality and safety of patient care in Oklahoma by facilitating, coordinating and expanding the use of health care simulation.
Contact:
Casey Cassidy: cjcassidy@okcu.edu
Pacific Northwest Healthcare Simulation Collaborative: PNWHSC provides a forum for members to discuss simulation, share evidence-based best practices for simulation learning experiences as well as individual expertise, techniques, tools and resources in simulation training. PNWHSC members are educators, practitioners, researchers and stakeholders from schools of nursing and medicine, hospitals and the industry. The Collaborative strives to integrate and expand simulation training, methodology and technology in health care education to enhance the competency and confidence of health care providers. The ultimate purpose of the Collaborative is to improve patient safety and save lives in the communities it serves.
Contact:
Rachelle Reid: rachelle.reid@providence.org
Rural North Area Simulation Collaborative: The Rural North Area Simulation Collaborative (RNASC) includes Simulation Centers located from Sacramento to the Oregon border and from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The group meets twice a year in April and October. Each meeting highlights a member simulation center, provides technical training, showcases new equipment available for simulation and includes time for networking, questions and resource sharing.
Contact:
Becky Damazo: bdamazo@csuchico.edu
San Diego Simulation Collaborative: The San Diego Simulation Collaborative (SDSC) includes hospitals and schools within the surrounding San Diego region. Meetings are hosted by the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science. Attendees are representatives from both service and academia. A survey is being developed to send to all of the over 60 members to determine specific needs and goals.
Contact:
Lisa Sheehan: lsheehan@sandiego.edu
Simulation Canada: Simulation Canada (formerly SIM-one and the Canadian Network for Simulation in Healthcare) is Canada’s interprofessional, cross-sector network for the advancement of simulation in health care. The organization is a nonprofit organization that connects the simulation community, facilities and resources across Canada and beyond. Simulation Canada advocates for and advances simulated learning in health professions and education for the benefit of patient care and safety.
Contact:
Timothy Willet: TWillett@sim-one.ca
Simulation Professionals of Texas (SPOT): In 2014, a group of dedicated simulation champions came together to create the Simulation Professionals Of Texas (SPOT) to offer collaboration amongst simulation facilities and personnel in the state. Each quarterly event is sponsored by a different vendor. The group exists to carry forward the implementation of simulation teaching and training methodology in health care education within the state of Texas.
Contact:
Erica Hinojosa: ericayh@uta.edu
Southern California Simulation Collaborative: The Southern California Simulation Collaborative (SCSC) was developed with leadership provided by CINHC, supported with initial funding from the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Grants Program in 2009. The SCSC built upon the learnings and success of the BASC funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and provides a regional mechanism to facilitate networking and support collaboration to advance simulation practices in Los Angeles and the five surrounding county areas. Today, the SCSC consists of several hundred service and academic simulation enthusiasts in the greater Los Angeles area and beyond. The organization includes clinicians, academics, sim op specialists and techs from the area. It typically meets quarterly at different sim centers throughout the region in February, May, September and November.
Contact:
Russell Metcalfe-Smith: Russell.metcalfesmith@csmc.edu
Southeastern Indiana Simulation Network: The Southeastern Indiana Simulation Consortium is a partnership between academic and clinical sites that use simulation to train health care professionals. The group works together to improve regional simulation capacity, research simulation best practices, bridge the academic-clinical gap and ultimately improve patient care in the region. East Indiana AHEC coordinates the Consortium to foster collaboration, community partnerships and research projects at simulation sites.
Contact:
Becky Niese: becky.niese@eiahec.org
St. Louis Simulation Interest Group: The Saint Louis Simulation Group (SLSIG) was spearheaded by several simulation experts in the St. Louis region who wanted to bring the simulation community together for collaboration, education and resources. The group’s mission is to support excellence in simulation facilitation through collaboration and utilization of the standards of best practice to provide safe patient care.
Contact:
Kathy Roseland: kathy.roseland@mobap.edu
Utah Simulation Coalition: The Utah Simulation Coalition (USC) believes simulation plays a role in risk reduction through the practice of an act using simulated equipment. The group emphasizes that practice can lead to perfection, and without practice, there is no path to perfection.
Contact:
Stevi Gire: stevi.gire@nurs.utah.edu
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Lance Baily, BA, EMT-B, is the Founder & CEO of HealthySimulation.com, which he started while serving as the Director of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas back in 2010. Lance is also the Founder and acting Advisor to the Board of SimGHOSTS.org, the world’s only non-profit organization dedicated to supporting professionals operating healthcare simulation technologies. His co-edited Book: “Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Operations, Technology, and Innovative Practice” is cited as a key source for professional certification in the industry. Lance’s background also includes serving as a Simulation Technology Specialist for the LA Community College District, EMS fire fighting, Hollywood movie production, rescue diving, and global travel. He and his wife Abigail Baily, PhD live in Las Vegas, Nevada with their two amazing daughters.
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