Developing a Simulation Center to Educate the Future Healthcare Workforce
CHALLENGE
Seeking to align physical programming with a strategic plan to become and anchor for health sciences education in one of America’s largest cities embarked on a path toward development of a new education building on their campus. A community college focused on meetings the workforce needs of the community, the simulation center’s goal was to provide nursing, paramedicine, physician associates, technologists and other care providers in high demand in the region with real-life practical training. This practical training will accelerate participants’ introduction into the local workforce.
Stakeholder interviews
Baseline strategy validation
Student consumer experiential analysis
Educator consumer experiential analysis
Co-creation sessions to explore tomorrow’s clinical education and simulation experiences
Concept development
APPROACH
We facilitated a team of educators from the college and clinical educators to explore the future of health sciences education, new models of simulation training, and evolving student expectations. Future horizon scanning, arm chair fields trips, design thinking, and performance-based planning models were used to develop the vision for the simulation center in conjunction with the design team.
RESULTS
The new simulation center features a virtual hospital with operating and emergency rooms with observation areas, nursing, radiography, respiratory care, science labs and an ambulance cab for EMS simulations. The center, increases the student capacity at the campus by 40% and will create interdisciplinary educational opportunities reflecting how healthcare will be delivered in the foreseeable future.
40%
increase in student capacity
20K
square foot virtual hospital + simulation center