A look back at the development  of CMS’ Healthcare Adventures^TM (HCA) team-training workshops for healthcare leadership and management teams was featured in a recent  Donaghue Foundation Newsletter.  It was a grant from the Donaghue Foundation in 2007 that led to the development of  the current version of the HCA program. Recently, Donaghue provided a generous supplemental grant to help CMS investigate the prospects of diseminating HCA on a broader regional, and potentially national, basis.

Designed for both clinical and non-clinical healthcare leadership and management teams, HCA is a one-day group workshop that combines customized team challenges with a simulated patient in a highly realistic clinical environment. Yes, non-clinicians actually get the chance to care for a patient and experience real-life issues first hand. It’s an eye-opener! In this highly realistic clinical setting, teams can identify group strengths and capitalize on them; or, identify barriers to effective teamwork and tackle them head on. Applying the learnings collected from training the most dynamic and high-stakes teams of Harvard physicians over the last twelve years, the HCA workshop offers an unrivalled performance-enhancing experiences for any leadership, management or administrative group involved in healthcare.

The Patrick & Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation was established by Ethel Donaghue in memory of her parents. The Foundation is a charitable testamentary trust dedicated to furthering the search for medical knowledge of practical benefit to human life and to the quality of the lives of people, particularly in Connecticut. The Foundation focuses on initiatives in and for the State to strengthen research on health issues, to promote future research leadership, and to put new knowledge to work for public benefit.

Professor Gudela Grote, PhD, from ETH Zurich will be talking about her group’s work on coordination and leadership in high-risk teams at an informal luncheon meeting at CMS on Wednesday, December 14 starting at noon. 

Gudela Grote, PhD, is a full Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich, The main objective of her research is to provide psychologically based concepts and methods for integrative job and organizational design, taking into consideration the changing technological. economic and societal demands and opportunities. Of special interest to Dr. Grote are the increasing flexibility and virtuality of work and their consequences for the individual and organizational management of uncertainty. Application fields for Prof. Grote’s research are teamwork and standardization in high-risk systems, management of the psychological contract, career development, effects of new technologies on work processes, and collaborative planning within an between organizations.

Prof. Grote is associate editor of the journal Safety Science and member of the editorial board of several other journals. She has published widely on topics in Organizational Behavior, Human Factors, Human Resource Management, and safety management. She has worked with companies such as the Swiss Railways, Swiss Re and various public organizations. Together with Prof. Bruno Staffelbach from the University of Zurich she publishes annually the “Schweizer HR-Barometer”.

Boston Simulation Community Research and Education Meeting
CIMIT Boston Simulation Consortium Quarterly Meeting
December 13th, Tuesday from 5:00-7:00 pm
Center for Medical Simulation
65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA, 1st Floor

This meeting will focus on topics of interest to the greater Boston simulation community such as the upcoming Society for Simulation in Healthcare Annual meeting (IMSH), the development of a collective simulation website calendar for Boston area simulation centers and potential grant opportunities.

The Boston Simulation Community Research and Education Meetings provide a friendly and informal venue for simulation educators and researchers to present work-in-progress, discuss relevant ideas from other disciplines and connect with others with an interest in simulation. The meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Please join us!

Up-coming meetings:

January 10th:
Preparation and preview for International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare, 2012. If you would like to present a work in progress for feedback from the group or give a preview of your completed presentation we welcome your work. Contact  Jenny Rudolph at jwrudolph@partners.org.

February 21:
Emily Hayden, MD, MEd, Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation, Harvard Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital Learning Lab
Measuring Problem Representation Among Preclinical Medical Students Following Mannequin Simulations.
Clinical reasoning is an important skill for medical students to acquire during both their pre-clinical and clinical years. Based on the work on teaching problem representation as a framework for clinical reasoning, the purpose of this project was to develop an instrument capable of detecting differences between students who were trained to use problem representation versus those who were not.

Jeff Cooper, CMS’ Executive Director, was recently honored as a MGH HAVEN ( Helping Abuse and Violence End Now) Domestic Violence Unsung Hero.  Jeff has been an active member of MGH Men Against Abuse for many years. As noted by HAVEN, “His continuing dedication and willingness to get involved in the early days of the men’s effort to raise awareness and end domestic violence is greatly appreciated.” Congratualations to Jeff on receiving this award and for being involved in such a worthwhile group.

The HAVEN Program at MGH was officially launched in January of 1997. Its mission is to work as part of the broader movement to end intimate partner abuse by improving and enhancing our health care response to patients, employees, and community members who have been impacted by abuse. Click here to view Director Elizabeth  Speakman discussing HAVEN at MGH.

Please join us on Tuesday November 8th, Tuesday from 5:30-7:00 PM for the Boston Simulation Community Research and Education Meeting.

Topic:  Simulation Instructor Certification as a Peer-Guided Learning Process

Toni Walzer, MD, Deb Navedo, PhD, CPNP, CNE, Jenny W. Rudolph, PhD, Robert Simon EdD,

Over the past 10 years, the Center for Medical Simulation’s approach to developing and certifying its own instructors has evolved.  This interactive session will discuss the recently revised CMS certification process, which includes peer observation, rating, and feedback on debriefings.  The meeting will provide attendees with the opportunity to observe, rate, and provide feedback on a debriefing, and to discuss the action research project being led by Deb Navedo to understand what faculty learn via this process.

More detail: Both the process of agreeing on instructor certification criteria, and the process of putting them into practice foster debate about what it means to be a competent simulation instructor. With the help of Deb Navedo from the Institute for Health Professions at MGH, CMS has also embarked on an action research project to study how our “Community of Practice” learns from each other about how to improve debriefing skills. 　

Toni Walzer, MD co-directs the Labor and Delivery Teamwork Simulation Program at CMS
Deb Navedo, PhD, CPNP, CNE is the Coordinator of Teaching and Learning Certificate Program, MGH Institute of Health Professions
Jenny W. Rudolph, PhD directs the Graduate Program of the Institute for Medical Simulation
Robert Simon, EdD is the Education Director of the Center for Medical Simulation and directs the Institute for Medical Simulation.

About the Boston Simulation Community Research and Education Meeting:
Our meetings provide a friendly and informal venue for simulation educators and researchers to present work-in-progress, acquaint each other with relevant ideas from other disciplines and connect with others. We meet the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Please join us! 　    

Up-coming meetings:    

December 13th:     

Measuring Problem Representation Among Preclinical Medical Students Following Mannequin Simulations    

Emily Hayden, MD, MEd, Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation, Harvard Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital Learning Lab    

Clinical reasoning is an important skill for medical students to acquire during both their pre-clinical and clinical years.  Based on the work on teaching problem representation as a framework for clinical reasoning, the purpose of this project was to develop an instrument capable of detecting differences between students who were trained to use problem representation versus those who were not.     

January  10th: Preparation and preview for International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare, 2012    

We’ve added two IMS “Simulation as a Teaching Tool” Simulation Instructor Workshops in 2012.  The first workshop will be held at the Medical Simulation Center at Loma Linda University  in Loma Linda, California from February 6-9, 2012.  A few months later the CMS Faculty will head to New York City where they’ll teach the course at the Institute for Medical Simulation and Learning (IMSAL) at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

Taught by CMS’ Harvard faculty, the Simulation as a Teaching Tool Workshop is a 4-day intensive immersion in healthcare simulation that is specifically designed for those educators seeking to develop high quality simulation programs. It covers high level elements and concepts involved in using simulation as a teaching tool.

Drawing on the disciplines of aviation, healthcare, psychology, experiential learning, and organizational behavior, participants learn how to teach clinical, behavioral, and cognitive skills through simulation. Participants explore simulator based teaching methods applicable across the healthcare education spectrum, including undergraduate and graduate medical, nursing and allied health domains.

The daily formats vary and include simulation scenarios, lectures, small and large group discussions, and practical exercises with feedback. Ample opportunities are provided for networking and sharing experiences. Attendees join a growing community of Institute graduates who are positioned as leaders in the field.

Tuition for this workshop is $4,000

To learn more about the workshop, or to apply, visit the Center for Medical Simulation (CMS) website’s IMS webpage at
http://www.harvardmedsim.org/ims/html. You can also email CMS at info@harvardmedsim.org , or call Gary Rossi, CMS’ COO at 617.768.8267

IMS LOMA LINDA FLYER 
IMS IMSAL NY FLYER

Last Thursday CMS had the honor of hosting Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger”.  Captain Sullenberger is the pilot who safely landed US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January, 2009 saving everyone on board after his aircraft hit a flock of birds knocking out both engines after takeoff. Captain Sullenberger, who retired from US Airways after thirty years of services in March, 2010, is a recognized expert on airline safety.  He’s  served as an instructor and as the Air Line Pilots Association Safety Chairman where his safety work led to the development of the Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular. Captain Sullenberger was instrumental in developing and implementing the Crew Resource Management course that is used by US Airways.  Since 2007 he has run his own consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods (SRM), Inc. which provides expert solutions to complex problems involving safety, high performance, and high reliability in the aviation industry. And, this past May he became the Aviaition and Safety Expert for CBS News. Captain Sullenberger is  interested in learning more about what can be done to improve safety in the healthcare sector and visited CMS  to see the cutting work we’re doing using simulation to help improve the quality and safety of care delivered to patients.

Congratulations to our friends Demian Szyld and Grace Ng on the opening of the New York Simulation Center for Health Sciences.  The 20.8 million dollar training center, located at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, is a collaboration between the NYU Langone Medical Center and the City University of New York.  It opened a few weeks ago, after nearly a decade of planning, and was created in large part as a response to the September 11, 2001 attack on New York City.  Demian and Grace (right and center in the picture by Paul Taggart of the NY Times) are long time friends of CMS and often teach in the CMS Institute of Medical Simulation Instructor Courses.

Everyone here at CMS wishes the them the best of success with the new center.

Crisis Management Training for Practicing Anesthesiologists
Tuition: $1500
Meets the MOCA® Part IV Simulation Requirement

The Center for Medical Simulation (CMS) is offering intensive one day workshops in Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management (ACRM) for all anesthesiologists that will meet the MOCA® Part IV simulation requirement. These workshops have been approved for 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 continuing education credits and are also eligible for Risk Management Study.

CMS Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management workshops are designed for those anesthesiologists seeking to practice their skills in managing critical events. The overall focus of these workshops is on learning the type of teamwork and generic skills needed when managing any kind of infrequent but critical event in anesthesia and opportunities will be made available to learn skills in managing certain specific events. During the workshops, participants requiring MOCA® certification will each have a turn as the primary anesthesiologist caring for the patient.

The Center for Medical Simulation is an endorsed program in the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Simulation Education Network, and has ensured that this workshop complies with the American Board of Anesthesiologists’ Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesia MOCA® Part IV simulation requirements. MOCA® is a registered certification mark of The American Board of Anesthesiology, Inc.

Schedule September 2011 – June 2012

September 8, 19, 22
October 6, 27, 31
November 3, 21, 28
December 5, 8, 12, 19
January 5, 9, 19, 23
February 6, 9, 13, 27
March 5, 19, 22, 26
April 9, 23
May 7, 10, 21
June 4, 7, 11

Additional Saturday and weekday courses may be scheduled pending demand. CMS welcome entire teams from your group by special arrangement . 

View Workshop PDF

Click here to Apply for this Workshop