Here is a copy of the narrative used for our application for the Showcase of Regional Excellence:
A growing need to train academic faculty members as simulation facilitators has continued to grow by leaps and bounds throughout the state of Utah. The majority of currently trained facilitators completed the Simulation Facilitator Course through Intermountain Healthcare's accredited simulation program. In December of 2018, Weber State/Nu Nu Chapter leaders (Dr. Susan Thornock, Dr. Sally Cantwell, Dr. Rieneke Holman, Dr. Deborah Judd, and Marlene Summers) met with the simulation leaders from Intermountain Healthcare (Sarah Minson & Patty Kohen) to discuss the best way to proceed in the future with meeting the need for all simulation faculty in the state. Due to high demand for seats at their simulation facilitator course, Sarah said Intermountain Healthcare is not able to keep up with all the external requests to attend their course. She said we are welcome to use any of their materials in their course and modify them as needed to meet academia needs. Weber State University personnel ensured Sarah and Patty Intermountain Healthcare’s materials would be given full acknowledgement and gratitude.
Sarah also suggested we work with other university nursing programs to organize this course. All Weber State personnel were excited about this option and immediately contacted other university simulation facilitators who had also completed this course. Individual conversations with Stacie Hunsaker at Brigham Young University (Iota Iota), Madeline (Maddie) Lassche at the University of Utah (Gamma Rho), and Dr. Diane McAdams-Jones at Utah Valley University (Iota Iota) resulted in great excitement and commitment to pursue the development of this course which would be open to any academia faculty member in the state of Utah. With Maddie also serving as President of the Utah Simulation Coalition (where each university has membership), the sponsorship will come from this collaborative organization. Video conferences have been held every other month in 2019. April 25th will be a face-to-face meeting to finalize the content and presenter assignments for the first course to be conducted at Weber State University on August 13th - 15th, 2019. Kristine Bouwhuis, RRT and Simulation Coordinator at Weber State University, is also a key member of this simulation committee as well as the Utah Simulation Coalition. Western Governors University and Westminster College have also been invited to join this planning collaboration group.