One of the objectives of the SIM for Life is to train and mentor Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) faculty staff members in simulation methodology through a faculty development course. In cooperation with the University of Calgary (U of C), the Stavanger Acute Medicine Foundation for Education and Research (SAFER) and the Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies in Uganda (CAMTech Uganda), a course to train MUST faculty members on simulation principles were developed.
The course constitutes of a one and half day session that teaches faculty members about educational theory, principles of effective teamwork, scenario design and development, and pre-briefing and debriefing of simulation sessions.
Additionally, a secondary course to gauge the impact of the simulation facilitator course is used. In these follow-up sessions, newly trained simulation facilitators are given the opportunity to run simulation sessions and debrief medical and nursing students with feedback from the core certified simulation team from MUST. The faculty participants are evaluated in four key points through their training: a baseline assessment prior to training, immediately after the course, 12 months’ post-course and immediately after a refresher.
Finally, a day-long refresher course for the MUST simulation staff has been implemented, on several occasions, these sessions are supported by U of C staff. Through these sessions, the core elements of simulation and debriefing methodology are reviewed. The remainder of the course is focused on debriefing. Workshops are designed to allow participants the opportunity to observe debriefings and evaluate them for their effectiveness in: meeting scenario learning objectives, quality and type of feedback given, providing space to allow learners to share their thought process and overall creating a safe and effective learning environment where students feel comfortable to share their knowledge and performance gaps. The participants also get the opportunity to lead a debriefing session with feedback on their skills from MUST and U of C simulation experts.
These training sessions are open to all faculty members approved by the Sim for Life team. As of April 2018, participants have belonged to the MUST Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Nursing, Internal Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics.