HSSC’s Guiding Principles for Simulation-Based Learning:

• People learn by actively engaging in an immersive, supportive, reflective, and structured environment.
• Limitless possibilities exist to create an immersive learning environment.

What do we mean by immersive learning? Immersive is the sense of the learner that “I am in the learning experience and I am practicing doing the things that I need to do better.” (Pagano, 2013, p13).

For SMU students, this means that “I am making decisions about a patient’s/client’s care. I am leading a team of healthcare providers. I am operating a medical device. I am interviewing for a job. I am intubating a patient. I am practicing and I am getting real-time feedback and I am getting better.”

There are many instructional approaches to immersive learning. The HSSC team specializes in designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating simulation-based learning (SBL), which can use computerized manikins (manikin-based simulation) and standardized patients. Reflection and assessment are crucial parts of simulation-based education. After completing sessions, participants debrief through discussion and review audio and video of scenarios. This immediate feedback reinforces learning and allows students to safely learn from mistakes.

At each SMU campus, the HSSC clinical skills labs and simulation suite are equipped to implement and record any type of simulation technique, as well as support most methods of technology-enhanced teaching. In our clinical skills labs, you will use the same equipment used at hospitals to practice tasks like inserting IVs, giving injections, and performing a head-to-toe health assessment. Task trainers allow you to demonstrate your mastery of those specific skills.

Role-Play with Actors

The best preparation for the human side of healthcare is practice with real people. That is why SMU engages actors as Simulated/Standardized Patients (SPs). An SP is trained to portray a patient in circumstances like those that might occur in a real clinical setting. In addition to the physical symptoms of a specific medical diagnosis, an SP is prepared to tell stories, express emotions, show stress, and exhibit attitudes toward the medical profession. The portrayal should be so convincing that even a skilled clinician might think the performance is real.

SPs need a good memory, excellent communication skills, and a flexible schedule. The HSSC team will provide training.

Interested in acting as a Standardized Patient? Let us know. A member of the HSSC team will contact you.

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Simulation-based learning enhances interprofessional practice and education (IPE) by immersing students in team-based scenarios in a realistic healthcare environment. The scenario is immediately followed by a guided debriefing with a faculty member trained in IPE and who leads the reflective discussion. Our educators work directly with IPE teams and academic faculty seeking to integrate IPE into the curriculum.  

Students and professionals from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, along with Cal State East Bay, San Jose State, San Francisco State, and John F. Kennedy universities often interact in these IPE courses, further enriching the experience. 

More information on IPE at SMU

The HSSC Mission:

The HSSC promotes immersive learning for healthcare professionals in an environment where simulation-based education is purposefully integrated into programs. Through a collaborative, interprofessional approach, we provide opportunities to acquire knowledge based on best practices and to positively transform the experience of learning.

We Value:

• An environment where we challenge ourselves and our students to think critically, seek mastery, and act compassionately.
• A collegial environment where we are fair, respectful, and behave with integrity.
• A collaborative environment where we partner with one another and with others in the community.
• An innovative environment where we take reasoned risks and move nimbly.
• A results-oriented environment where we provide and expect exceptional performance and service.
   

HSSC Guiding Principles:

• Listening and collaborating is essential to our success.
• Limitless possibilities exist to create an immersive learning environment.
• People learn by actively engaging in an immersive, supportive, reflective, and structured environment.
• Learners include faculty, students, and healthcare professionals both internal and external to SMU.
• Everyone is a lifelong learner.
• All learners, faculty, and staff are treated equitably and respectfully regardless of their backgrounds and identities in accordance with SMU’s Principles of Community.
• There is personal responsibility for enhancing individual knowledge for teaching and learning practices.
• We have an obligation to contribute to the body of knowledge of immersive learning through research and scholarly dissemination.
• We are essential to successful Interprofessional Education at SMU.
• We believe in the TeamSTEPPS approach to working as a team.

• We emphasize human factors and patient safety in strengthening our core curriculum.
• We implement interprofessional scenarios that reflect real clinical situations, often using real cases as our models.
• We support SMU’s faculty members as they integrate simulation into SMU’s curriculum in all disciplines.
• We support the goal of simulation-based learning methodologies as SMU’s primary paradigm for demonstrating educational effectiveness.
• We develop structured courses on crisis resource management for targeted groups of community health professionals and all SMU students.
• We provide regional leadership and participate in regional training.