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 education through healthcare 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 improvements through connection of disparate healthcare and human service professions, disciplines and care delivery sectors. This has led Simulation Canada to establish six values that guide them: 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, such as 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.
Simulation Canada encourages healthcare simulation professionals to engage with the organization’s passionate community, contribute to the advancement of clinical simulation and seek out industry resources. For example, Simulation Canada offers advanced educational courses and simulationist certification, through the Keystones of Healthcare Simulation and Mastering the Artistic Side of Clinical Simulation (MASCS) certificate programs.
Simulation Canada Repository of Open Access Resources
Simulation Canada hosts a SIM Scenario Exchange for peer-reviewed healthcare simulation scenarios and tools.This open resource includes free healthcare simulation scenarios, links to free virtual simulations, clinical scenario development tools & templates, and assessment/evaluation tools. The Exchange fosters collaboration amongst international clinical simulationists to share improvements, and adaptation of resources. A free Simulation Canada website account is required to access the clinical simulation materials.
There is also a SIM Marketplace available to buy and sell on gently-used clinical simulation equipment, the SIM Product Directory and more on their website. The SIM Marketplace is a virtual platform for healthcare simulation staff and departments to buy, sell, rent, and share healthcare simulation products. This is a wonderful concept to assist in sustainability of healthcare simulation products and also increases opportunity to share resources across organizations across the world.
Simulation Canada has a SIM Company Directory which is a global list of healthcare simulation-based companies on their website. Simulation Canada’s Company Directory includes the profiles of small and large healthcare simulation companies and clinical simulation products and services available. SIM Journals is a segment of the Simulation Canada website which gives users the ability to search for academic journals that cover healthcare simulation. The journals listed are all published papers related to healthcare simulation.
Annual Simulation Canada Conferences
The annual SIM Expo (Simulation Canada’s flagship conference) and the National Forum on Simulation for Quality and Safety are other organizational educational and networking opportunities. An interprofessional and multidisciplinary healthcare simulation conference, Simulation Canada’s annual clinical simulation exposition celebrates the creativity, dedication and accomplishments of Canada’s healthcare simulation community.
Timothy Willett, MD MMEd, President and CEO at Simulation Canada has shared that, “Each year, the SIM Expo brings together healthcare leaders in university, college, hospital, emergency services, and community care sectors. Our participants are deans, administrators, educators, clinicians, SIM center managers and directors, and researchers from all health professions. Most participants are Canadian but it is an open conference and each year we are honored to host some international participants.”
Another conference hosted annually is the: “National Forum on Simulation for Quality & Safety”. This Forum is a truly unique event that highlights applications of healthcare simulation, and evidence for the effectiveness. The aim of the National Forum is to advance patient safety and quality improvement efforts.
Simulation Canada History
In July 2016, SIM-one launched membership programs, which officially shifts from a government-funded to a member-based organization. Two months later, SIM-one and CNSH began the integration process. By September 2017, members voted to finalize the integration of SIM-one and the Canadian Network for Simulation in Healthcare. This formed a new, integrated, interprofessional simulation network for Canada. In August 2018, this network broke ground and offered the first course available entirely in French.
One year after SIM-one and the Canadian Network for Simulation in Healthcare integrated in September 2017, members unanimously voted to change the organization’s name to “Simulation Canada.” The name change was designed to reflect the renewed scope, energy and vision of the integrated network. The Simulation Canada faculty members within this network are national and world leaders in healthcare simulation research and practice. They come from a variety of professional backgrounds and includes: medicine, nursing, EMS, respiratory therapy, theater arts and more.
Today, Simulation Canada offers a wide array of professional development courses in healthcare simulation-based education. The programs are designed for anyone in healthcare or human services interested in education about the clinical simulation field, new healthcare simulation educators or the ability to refine medical simulation skills. Interprofessional education (IPE) continues to be the primary driver for the delivery of all Simulation Canada course offers. These courses are founded on current educational theory and evidence, and reflect best practices in healthcare simulation.
Simulation Canada Healthcare Simulation Courses
Simulation Canada strives to make programs as accessible as possible and offers both on-site and online options. To further ensure high-quality and needs-based course offers, Simulation Canada actively pursues relationships with organizations from around the country and across all sectors. The organization offers sponsorship and co-development opportunities for courses, educational activities, events, healthcare simulation awards and more.
In terms of online educational programs, Simulation Canada structures courses as facilitated, interactive programs. They are designed to maintain connections and build community relationships among peers and experts that are a hallmark of in-person courses. Examples of Simulation Canada healthcare simulation courses include “Briefing, Debriefing and Facilitating Simulation,” “Developing Interactive Virtual Simulations Workshop,” “Introduction to Simulation: The Essentials of Simulation-Based Learning” and “Keystones Apex in Simulation-Based Education.”
Courses are offered in an online educational environment that encourages flexible engagement with peers and course content. Each course is facilitated by Simulation Canada experts and experienced faculty members. Simulation Canada also extends the option for external organizations to offer courses through private hosts to focus on development of their own healthcare simulation team and strategy.
The Keystones of Healthcare Simulation Course
The Keystones of Healthcare Simulation is a certificate program provided by Simulation Canada which is designed for learners who are interested in a more immersive experience in healthcare simulation. The keystones program supports participants to develop their careers in healthcare simulation. Some of these roles include: educators, leaders, scholars and those involved in faculty development. The Keystones experience is foundational to network and collaboration in the clinical simulation industry. Connections made in the Keystones program will assist to nurture and further develop practice within the healthcare simulation community.
After completion of the program, participants in Keystones participants will be able to:
- Describe several clinical simulation methods for education in a variety of contexts
- Describe some of the theoretical bases for clinical simulation
- Demonstrate acquired knowledge, skills and attitude in the use of clinical simulation
- Demonstrate enhanced facilitation skills for the conduction of clinical simulation
- Acquire a positive attitude towards implementation and initiation of change
- Incorporate interactive and experiential clinical simulation techniques into their education
- Identify the ways clinical simulation can be used for academic scholarship
- Describe a strategy for implementation of their own career development plan
The Keystones Apex course was launched in 2017 and is an intensive in-person session or online program that covers all coursework required for a Keystones Certificate. Simulation Canada hosts these courses several times a year. To meet the demands of the international clinical simulation community, Simulation Canada re-formatted the Keystone course to an online hybrid and asynchronous version in 2020.
Virtual SIMs Provided by Simulation Canada
Virtual simulations, also referred to as screen-based healthcare simulation or virtual simulation games are game based education to depict real clinical events which the user can interact with a computer to complete scenarios to practice a number of skills such as clinical decision making skills and communication skills. A virtual patient simulator is a computer program that simulates actual clinical and patient scenarios so the learner acts as a health care provider who is able to obtain a history, physical exam, and make decisions. Virtual simulations are different from virtual reality simulations which require a specialized head mounted unit. Virtual simulation scenarios are completed on a computer. Simulation Canada provides a list of international virtual simulation platforms that are also available.
The Virtu-WIL Virtual Simulation Program
Virtu-WIL is a project that has been led by Colleges and Institutes Canada in collaboration with Simulation Canada to use virtual simulations to enhance healthcare education. Educators across Canada have access to over 185 virtual simulations designed for students in nursing, medical laboratory sciences, sonography, and paramedicine. The virtual simulations are innovative hands-on educational experiences for students to be able to acquire practical competencies. All of the virtual simulations are free for Canadian educators and students, and many are accessible globally for other countries free of charge.
The Virtu-WIL virtual simulations are designed by Canadian educators and are based on pedagogical objectives. Most virtual simulations are intended to be run on a computer and accessed by a standard screen, but some require a virtual reality headset. In each of the virtual simulations, students are presented with a clinical situation to investigate and assess, and then receive feedback on their clinical decisions. All healthcare simulations have been peer-reviewed and trialed through the Virtu-WIL project. A free Simulation Canada website account is required to access the virtual simulation materials.
Additional Simulation Canada Clinical Simulation Resources
Simulation Canada enables and supports research, development and innovation in the field of clinical simulation for health professionals’ education and health system improvement. The organization offers a number of services, such as research and development grants, education, mentorship, commercialization support and more.
Click Here to Connect to Leading Healthcare Simulation Vendors
To draw on the organization’s extensive network of over 50 healthcare simulation centers and over 500 healthcare simulation researchers and innovators, Simulation Canada’s R&D community holds tremendous potential to advance our knowledge of medical simulation-based education, to develop and implement novel clinical simulation-based curricula and quality improvement programs and to create new healthcare simulation tools and technologies. Simulation Canada currently offers these services:
Simulation Research & Innovation Grant: Simulation Canada (formerly SIM-one) previously offered grants to fund research projects in Ontario.
Research Training: The Simulation Research Primer is the perfect introduction to the world of research in clinical simulation-based education. Simulation Canada also offers distance education and webinars on research and innovation. Webinars are offered periodically on key issues that emerge in healthcare simulation.
R&D Mentorship and Networking: Simulation Canada draws upon the organization’s vast network that brings together researchers and innovators from diverse professions and disciplines to enable mentorship for new researchers and collaboration for multi-site and multidisciplinary projects.
Innovation Support: Simulation Canada helps healthcare simulationists bring new ideas to life. Whether an idea for a new product, technology, technique or service, Simulation Canada provides assistance and guidance across the continuum of innovation and commercialization.
Publications: Simulation Canada constantly screens academic journals for new publications related to healthcare simulation-based education. The organization maintains a list of all journals that publish clinical simulation-related papers.
External Grants and Conferences: Simulation Canada maintains up-to-date lists of external grants of funds and opportunities and conferences related to healthcare simulation. Learn more on the Simulation Canada website or read these articles below.
