IMSH 2013 report

29 April 2013

Report from Kirsty Freeman, Manager ECU Health Simulation Centre, Edith Cowan University.

In January this year I was fortunate to attend the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando Florida. The conference was attended by over 3000 people from 52 countries.

The first thing that impressed me was the completely paperless system. There was an App that I downloaded to my iPad that enabled me to select and keep track of the session that I wanted to attend. One of the sponsors had an internet cafe’ where delegates mingled, checking out their various sessions.

The conference started in the afternoon of the first day, allowing people to attend pre-conference workshops in the morning. I started with a pre-conference workshop by Adam Cheng and Walter Eppich titled PEARLS: a mixed method approach to debriefing. In current practice, debriefers will usually utilise on debriefing methodology, such as the advocacy/inquiry from Harvard, to guide their debrief. The PEARLS framework created by the authors, advocates a mixed methodology, allowing the debriefer the opportunity to mix up their style depending on their group of learners, and the learning context.

The opening plenary session by Dr Vinary Nadkarni – Resuscitating Resuscitation… Embedding simulation research into practice without getting “lost in translation” highlighted how simulation based research in the area of advanced cardiac life support was informing simulation based education.

There were many opportunities for networking, including the various Special Interest Group meetings. I attended the Directors of Simulation Centres special interest group, which was attended by approximately 50 international centre managers/directors. There was also much debate around accreditation and the perceived benefits this may provide a centre – a heated topic discussed at the conference.

The Lou Oberndorf plenary by Jenny Rudolf presented Good Judgement in Action, an expansion of her published work on using good judgment in relation to debriefing. We are fortunate to have secured Jenny as a keynote speakers at this year’s SimHealth Conference, and I look forward to hearing her speak again.

The wonderful closing plenary by Peter Dieckmann looked at the psychological aspects of the learner-faculty interactions, and the perceptions of and reactions to simulation. It was spellbinding as Peter presents the various theoretical frameworks of psychologists such as Kurt Lewin, such as his change process and his formula for behaviour development. Peter is a wonderfully dynamic speaker and really finished the conference on a high note.

My overall impression of the conference was extremely positive. I was apprehensive that the conference would be so big that it would be difficult to differentiate the sessions of interest, however the new electronic program clearly group the various topics, making selection much easier.

I have been able to develop new practices around debriefing and CRM principles and would recommend this conference to my colleagues.