SimBus Innovations: Taking Disaster Preparedness Simulations to the Outlying Areas

Abstract

<p>As simulation emerges as the best practice in education; access to its offered trainings still remains a challenge. The James A. Haley Veterans&rsquo; Hospital and Clinics serves over 94,000 unique Veteran and active duty patients in more than 1.2 million outpatient visits at its main hospital, Primary Care Annex, Outpatient Clinic and three community based outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) spread out over more than two dozen offsite locations.</p> <p>Currently more than 260 nursing and medical staff work at locations other than the main hospital campus. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to schedule staff training at the main hospital for those who work at offsite locations due to staffing priorities and travel time. Thus, staff working offsite do not get the same opportunity to attend educational classes as those working in the main hospital. As a result, the James A. Haley VA Hospital (JAHVH) simulation faculty teamed up with the JAHVH Disaster Emergency Management program (DEMPS) team leader to use one of the larger Dual Use Vehicle (DUV) buses they had on campus to bring education, including disaster emergency management preparedness trainings to the outlying clinics. The VA Sim Bus has also formed a strategic partnership with local college and universities to provide disaster management training to provide trainings in natural and chemical disasters that may occur in our area. This session will provide the blueprint on the bus features and usage, challenges and successes and how we maintain its operational capacity for ongoing various simulation trainings.</p>