SSH Position Statement Regarding: Racism, Prejudice, and Brutality

(June 24, 2020)

The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) wholeheartedly condemns systemic racism, prejudice, and brutality. All of these are unacceptable.

Our Society, serving a global community of practice enhancing the quality of healthcare, takes seriously the aphorism “first, do no harm” and the related Hippocratic Oath, Nightingale Pledge, and related codes of ethics, all which hold caregivers to a high ethical standard. We demand that individuals responsible for any form of caregiving or community service also uphold the respective high ethics and ethos required of their position.

However, it is not enough to condemn and demand. Our Society must directly engage in ways that fall within our sphere of influence.

For our Society, that means:

• SSH will foster expanded diversity within both the healthcare simulation industry and its membership.
• SSH will leverage its educational simulation expertise to reduce the impact of implicit bias on health equity.

To achieve these ends, the SSH Board of Directors will:

• Form the Diversity Task Force to address diversity within both the healthcare simulation industry and our membership.
• Form the Health Equity Working Group to establish an open, freely available Addressing Implicit Bias curriculum.

As evidenced in the Healthcare Simulationist Code of Ethics, SSH is committed to Integrity, Mutual Respect, Professionalism, and Accountability. While the context is different, the moral principle is the same: doing the right thing is the right thing to do.

Now and always, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare is committed to doing the right thing by promoting reform and equity for all people.

Sincerely,

The SSH Board of Directors

2021 L St NW, Suite 400 | Washington, DC 20036 | Phone: 866-730-6127 | ssih.org