Introduction
In the beginning… there were minimal resources for those in simulation and skill’s labs… so out of this need, to create a support group for nurse educators, the Tristate Nursing Skills Lab Consortium was developed. The time was 2006 and the times were much different than versus what they are today. The consortium quickly realized that simulation needed to be included as part of our educational foundation. Consequently, the Tristate Nursing Skills and Simulation Consortium was organized. The name Tristate was chosen since we are strategically located on the borders of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky with several nursing colleges and health organization represented. In this article we will give and overview of how we progressed and developed into our own professional organization. The following article describes our group as we have evolved in meeting the needs of our region with skills and simulation.
Overview
To provide an opportunity for support, collaboration, and networking for healthcare professional skills and simulation educators in the Tri-State region of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky is the purpose and the mission of our group.
Achievements
With our mission to guide us, we decided that we wanted to be a professional organization. We had attempted to become and off-spring of bigger organization but with researching that possibility and meeting many restrictions and obstacles in that area, we decided to proceed solely as our own entity. The Consortium accomplished the goal of creating a professional organization with tac-exempt status. The creation of by-laws and election of officers created and organization that meets the needs of our members. These officers were deeply committed persons who were the visionaries in establishing the mission and purpose of our group.
Initially, the officers included a President, President-Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, after membership expanded and our goals included outreach education, Past President (2007), a Director of Education (2008), and most recently, a Director of Technology (2014) was added.
Our group began with bimonthly meeting with the board meetings help prior to the general membership meetings. Since then, due to increasing membership, meetings were changed to quarterly. Each of our meetings consist of an educational component. Some of these included: Ohio Board of Pharmacy regulations for skill’s labs, moulage recipes, debriefing techniques, curriculum integration of simulation, tips and tricks for use in simulation, visiting the hosting skills and simulation labs of our members, this was an added benefit, as we looked at deigns, equipment, and methods for completing skills and simulation in each lab. Our meetings rotated among the members labs. We used a website for our initial outreach, along with emails to all schools, colleges, universities, and hospitals involved in out consortium. From the website we moved to Facebook in 2012, and the addition of our Director of Technology in 2014.
As our consortium has grown our needs have grown as well. When we were originally established, our focus was to serve nurse educators in nursing colleges. However, we soon realized that health organizations and hospitals were also interesting in what we had to offer: networking, support for nurse educators in staff education and simulation, and education. And most recently the Consortium has added respiratory therapists into our membership to create collaborative professional milieu.
Educational Offerings
Since our inception we have hosted four Skills and Simulation conferences. The Tristate Nursing Skills and Simulation Consortium has become quite well known throughout the tri-state region as being an excellent education provider and support system. In the years since our existence we have impacted over 40 health care and nursing education institutions and over 100 individuals from a 300-mile range who have attended our meetings besides over 200 participants at our well-organized conferences.
Our bimonthly meetings have included articles for review on simulation skills. With a journal club approach, we keep abreast of current information and ideas for inclusion in our skills and simulation.
Collaborative Efforts
It has been through collaboration of a core group of educators from colleges and healthcare organizations that this consortium began. Together our members have travelled to regional and international conferences: Laerdal’s Simulation Network (SUN), CAE Healthcare/Medical Education Technologies, Inc. (METI, International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation (INACSL), Ohio Consortium of Nursing Learning Labs (OCNLL), and National League of Nursing (NLN). We have presented our research on simulation, shared information on the creation of our consortium and innovations in simulation.
Most recently the educational component consisted of CDC guidelines for Ebola, and its implementation in a PPE simulation when the outcome was the group realization that c-diff was much more pertinent to our student population, thus guidelines and scenarios were created and shared.
A simulation alliance program has been developed starting in 2013 with Pocket Nurse. This company works in collaboration with our consortium in providing preferential pricing and added services. This includes supplies and equipment discounts, rebates, fixed delivery prices, and sponsorship. The value of such a partnership ensures benefits to all involved.
Challenges
As the number of members increase, the time available for getting together with an agreed upon time and date has become increasingly difficult. With differing schedules and simulation being offered during the days, evenings, weekdays, and weekends, it takes extra motivation and energy on the part of educators to be fully integrated into the consortium. Planning a year in advance with dates and times makes it possible for all to schedule around these dates.
Continued financial support from our colleges, healthcare organizations, and companies also presents challenges. With the possibility of new alliances and with revenue from our educational conferences, we are sustaining the organization.
The Tristate Nursing Skills and Simulation Consortium’s name was officially changed to Tristate Healthcare Simulation Consortium to be inclusive of all healthcare staff that work in this specialty. The consortium continues making a difference in Nursing Skills Labs and Simulation Centers across the United States’ Midwest Region.