Hello, CHAMPIONS! What a Healthcare Simulation Week we just had!
Last week wrapped my fifth Healthcare Simulation Week, however, this year was a first for me in a lot of positive ways. I want to share a couple of those stellar things with you from my perspective as Director of Marketing and what I think it means for SSH going forward.
In the past, SSH’s Healthcare Simulation Week planning was delegated to the Media and Communications Committee. After that Committee discontinued in early 2023, a team planning team model was introduced - the same model SSH uses for IMSH and SimOps, specifically. This means planning co-chairs work with SSH Staff to develop a theme, strategic goals, and then specific actives and duties to achieve those goals.
This year’s theme & campaign - “Be a Champion of Your Healthcare Simulation Success Story!” - was developed by John Alex, CHSE-A, CHSOS, RDMS, FACEP, FAAEM; Priscilla Loanzon, EdD, RN,CHSE; and Shannon DiMarco, MSHS, CHSOS, three absolutely fantastic individuals who blended their creativity and professional backgrounds into a widely shared and accepted call to action from across the global healthcare simulation landscape.
It was a pleasure to work with them and see their planning come to life!
One of the neat things to come from our planning sessions was the idea of a Healthcare Simulation Week Calendar of Events. The intent to this year’s offering was to find a way to showcase even more events taking place during the week. The result was a list of more than 90 (!) celebration events from nearly 20 countries through tours, online and in-person sessions, on-campus and in-building recognition and celebration events, and more.
It was a little overwhelming to see such a result, but it also left me with the determination of seeing if we can double (or more) the result next year because, man, it was cool to feel the energy come through that calendar!
Also, the planning team set up a new Center-to-Center Shadow program. It asked SSH Accredited programs to serve as mentors, in a sense, in a controlled pairing (maximum of five days) with programs that offered questions or requested guidance in some capacity over the summer. While the spirit of the program was thought to be online pairings, one of those actually led to a visit from the mentee to the mentor’s facility. How cool is that!
It was just an awesome byproduct of the idea, and it’s one I sincerely hope to see continue in the future because, as you know, collaboration is such an integral part to this entire industry’s success.
In general, we again saw a huge turnout on the participation map. It is always fascinating to me to see pins appear from around the world. Hundreds popped on this year from dozens of nations, which, to me, speaks to the campaign’s continued footprint growth and saturation.
So… where from here, right?
Soon, SSH will be putting out a volunteer call for service across all of its available opportunities - including committees, chairs, planning teams, etc. Healthcare Simulation Week’s three co-chair positions will be part of that call, so be on the look out for that and all ways to get involved with SSH!
And, of course, I hope you’re making plans to attend the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare, Jan. 20-24, 2024, in San Diego, California! If you need help convincing your organization or supervisor you need to attend, check out the Justification Toolkit at IMSH2024.org. Of all things SSH provides, this event is the can’t-miss educational and connection event of the year.
Take care, and we’ll talk with you again soon. Until then, make sure you follow SSH on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X (Twitter)!
Curtis Kitchen, CAE
SSH Director of Marketing