As a new fellow at the only simulation fellowship in southern
California, I felt it was important to spread the word about the power of medical simulation
education. After months of planning, I
sent out an email to our medical students to gauge their interest in forming a
simulation interest group. I received about
15 responses, and then got the ball rolling! Introducing the first ever UC Irvine School of Medicine Medical Student Simulation Interest Group!
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| UC Irvine School of Medicine Medical Student Simulation Interest Group Featured in this photo: Front row, left: Dr Cameron Ricks, Simulation Center Director, Assistant Professor Department of Anesthesia; Front row right: Dr Eric McCoy, director of Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship, Assistant Professor Department of Emergency Medicine |
A few weeks ago, we had our first simulation interest group
meeting, and it was a total success! I wanted to share with you some
of the highlights of the meeting, in case you are looking to do the same at
your own facility. In order to make the
group successful, I urge you to consider the 7 following steps:
1. Obtain and Introduce the supporting faculty and staff.
a. Ensure that prior to starting your group, you have faculty and staff support who will sponsor, mentor and dedicate time to ensuring the growth, development, and persistence of your group. For me as a fellow, I have 2 supporting faculty members, Dr Eric McCoy (right, behind me in the photo) the emergency medicine fellowship director, and Dr Cameron Ricks (left), the director of anesthesia simulation and the simulation center at UCI.
b. Give the students some background information about you and other staff members, and your motivation behind the group. I wanted the
students to know about my background in education, and why academic medicine
was so important to me. I also wanted
them to understand why I chose to complete a fellowship in simulation
education, as by providing both emotional and hands-on components to learning,
I feel it is one of the most effective ways to teach.
c.
This introduces a
feeling of mentorship to the students.
Let them know you are there for their benefit and education, and that
all ideas for the group regarding education, research and community service are
open to discussion.
2. Get to know your students, and their motivation behind joining the
group.
a.
The most important
reason for this is to ensure that the students are going to be dedicated to
keeping the group running successfully, both now and in the years to come.
b.
It is also
important to initiate a feeling of camaraderie among the group, understanding
their backgrounds and interests, and learning who they are as a person will
help to make a better collaborative whole.
3. Set your goals and objectives for the group
a.
Make sure you let
the students know what is expected for the group, and what will make the group
thrive. One of the best ways of doing this is by creating a group statement of
purpose. For us, it was fulfilling a
presence of education and learning, community service, and research for our
group. The students were very happy with
this as our defining theme. Initially
you may need to guide this step, as I did, because after all, you are the
developer of the group. Ask the
students how they would like to redefine or state these goals and objectives,
as it allows them to take ownership of the group.
4. Create specific rolls that should be fulfilled
a.
For our group, I
knew from preplanning, that there were specific roles I wanted the students to
fill. Take a look at the following list
and description of these roles as an idea for your own group.
i. President: to initiate and run group meetings, discuss agenda items, etc
ii. Vice President: to aid the president in the above and serve in his/her absence
iii. Faculty Liaison: I knew that having a large
group of student would be tough for me to manage, so I wanted to assign a role
to one student who would serve as the voice for the collective group. This person would be the “go-to” for the
students, as well as for me if there was a particular message I needed to get
out to the group.
iv. Web Master: As a student of a multi-media masters program, for me having our
own group webpage was key. There will
always be one student in the group interested in IT, and will help with web
page development, announcements, calendar, and web site maintenance. There are several free programs available for
this, such as word press. Speak with
your facilities IT department to inquire about web space domains for getting
your site up on the web.
v. President/VP of
Community Service: With a strong community service background, I
knew that this was something that I wanted to pursue. As health care providers who have been
granted the opportunity to get into and through medical school, I wanted the
students to know the importance of giving back to and educating the community.
vi. President/VP of
Education: Although running cases in
the simulation lab is very fun and exciting, not educating the students to the
power of simulation would be doing them a disservice. I wanted the students to understand the
educational value of simulation in education. By assigning the role of
President or VP of education, you can work with a few students to develop a
small group of lectures that could be taught each meeting to enhance the
knowledge base of the students to what simulation is.
vii. President/VP of
Research: As with all institutions of
higher learning, research is a big component to medical education. As a new field in medicine, the opportunities
to conduct simulation-based research are endless. Student input is also useful for developing
new projects.
5. Allow the students to take the reins
a.
Allow the students
to self-assign roles. They know their
own strengths and weaknesses, and this will allow for a more collaborative
environment without resentment toward the group leader. Surprisingly the students were very quick to
decide the role they wanted to fulfill.
b.
Allow the students
to choose what they want the group to achieve.
For our group, it was conducting simulation-based workshops for the
school of medicine. They also wanted to
work with other interest groups, such as the emergency medicine interest group,
surgery and ultrasound interest groups, to form collaborative workshops,
conferences, and lectures.
6. Set up monthly meetings to discuss new ideas and actions for the
group
a.
The group needs to
know that they have your support, and that there is vested interest in making
the group thrive. Consider monthly
faculty/student meetings, and monthly student group leader meetings to keep
your interest group on a track to success.
7. Choose a day specific to your group and make it yours
a.
As a new group, we
wanted to gain credibility on campus at UC Irvine. Our group came up with the idea of putting on
a conference called “SIMtober Fest.” It
would be a half day event where students immerse themselves in medical
simulation high-fidelity cases, task trainers, and education.
These are only my suggestions, but there is a wealth of information available on the web about how to start an interest group. Hopefully you found this resource and its links helpful.
References:
1. Goals and Objectives image. Retrieved May 29, 2015 from https://micajeho.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/meta_sprint_time_scrum.jpg
