Overview and Introduction to the Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas

Simulation based education is costly and time intensive at a time when resources are difficult to secure. As a result, Deans from the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Nursing, Nevada State College School of Nursing and the University of Nevada School of Medicine pooled their resources to design and operate a collaborative simulation center. Established in 2009, this was a major undertaking requiring close to one year to design and build. Recently, the Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas (CSCLV) celebrated its fifth year of operation, successfully achieving simulation-based education for students (nursing and medical) and residents (medical and surgical). It is a highly successful collaboration that provided 7,500 hours of student and resident learning activities in the last academic year.

This symposium will provide a brief overview of the CSCLV, its structure, staffing, and funding. Two other presentations will provide information on initiatives that have emerged from these disciplines sharing a simulation center. The first is a standardized patient program initiated by the medical school and subsequently adopted by one of the nursing schools for evaluation of Nurse Practitioner students. The second presentation focuses on the promotion and development of inter-professional education and research in the CSC and will describe some of the ongoing educational research being conducted.

A long term collaboration will necessarily be tested by changes in leadership. While the CSCLV has had the benefit of a very stable and collaborative leadership team, it is inevitable that change will occur. In the past year, one of the establishing deans retired and was replaced by a dean, new to the role. This has created challenges as he has been integrated into an ongoing system. The final presentation will focus on strategies to maintain an effective center in the face of changes in leadership. Together, these presentations will describe the multiplicative advantages of a collaborative simulation. In addition, challenges for sustaining this productive team will be discussed.