The Sim Cafe~

The Sim Cafe~ An Interview with Dr. Abbey Elliott

June 03, 2022 Season 2 Episode 21
The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~ An Interview with Dr. Abbey Elliott
Show Notes Transcript

Dr.Elliott is the Assistant Dean of Immersive Learning & Innovation for the
School of Nursing at Purdue University Global. She holds a DNP in educational
leadership where her project focused on interprofessional simulation student
outcomes. Dr. Elliott is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator and a
Certified Emergency Nurse. She has academic leadership experience in immersive
learning program design, implementation, and evaluation. She has also taught
classes in the lab, clinical, online, and in the classroom. In her free time,
Dr. Elliott enjoys spending time with her husband and five children.

Education: DNP, American Sentinel University; MSN/MHA, University
of Phoenix; BSN, Southwestern College

Email :Abbey elliot@purdueglobal.edu. 
 LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbey-elliott-clinicimmersi/

Innovative SimSolutions.
Your turnkey solution provider for medical simulation programs, sim centers & faculty design.

Intro:

Welcome to the SIM cafe, a podcast produced by the team at innovative SIM solutions edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host Deb Tober, as she sits down with subject matter experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. So pour yourself a couple of relaxation, sit back, tune in and learn something new from the SIM cafe.

Deb:

Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe. Today, we are blessed to have Dr. Elliot. Dr. Elliot is the Assistant Dean of immersive learning for the school of nursing at Purdue university global. She holds a DNP in educational leadership where her project focused on interprofessional simulation student outcomes. Dr. Elliot is certified healthcare simulation educator and certified emergency nurse. She has academic leadership experience in immersive learning program, design, implementation, and evaluation. She has also taught class in the lab clinical online and in the classroom, our free time, Dr. Elliot enjoys spending time with their husband and five children.<laugh> so welcome, Dr. Elliot, would you like me to call you Abby or Dr. Elliot?

Abbey:

Abbey is fine.

Deb:

Okay. Thank you. So we're, we're excited to be here today and we'll get into our first question, which is please share with us your story of how you got into simulation, how you stepped into it.

Abbey:

Sure. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm excited to share my journey with others. So I think my journey starts out similar to a lot of other simulationist. Um, to be honest was, you know, I got a, a position of starting a new simulation skills lab for nursing, and they had purchased the mannequins, which was nice, right. We actually had them, but no, because they heard these were a good thing to have. So no one, um, had really run them or got them started or knew how to do that at the organization. And so I started, you know, reading the manuals, they came with playing with equipment, Google searches, right. And I thought, I need more development on these things and, and how to make'em work. And then how do you use'em in the class and all of those things. And so I searched my area, uh, to say, is there a group around here that, that has done this? And I was very lucky to find an interprofessional group, um, that was starting with simulation and med schools, respiratory therapy programs, community colleges, and they were all collaborating and working together to figure this thing out. Uh, and so we, we partnered together to do that. I also looked out to like an AEL society for simulation in healthcare, some of the, um, mannequin companies that were out there that had some support, uh, for educators. And so I, I was really thankful that my start in simulation came from a lens of interprofessional education because it became more than me just training nurses on the mannequins. But then it was about this big picture of now the nurses get, you know, some of their basics and let's bring them all together with the other professions. And so it really opened my mind to what simulation could be and what it could do beyond just training those skills. That one profession might meet

Deb:

Abbey, who were the people in the group? Was it a formalized group or was it just a, is it Alliance now? Is it a, do you still meet with these people?

Abbey:

Yeah, so it was, um, it was an Alliance that was kind of came out of a local medical school. And so it was started by a physician, um, faculty member at that medical school, but then it encompassed. I mean, everyone in our region, the south central Kansas is where I started region and the group is still together. It's not as formalized, I don't believe, but since I, um, you know, my education purview now is more across the nation and at Purdue global and what we do with simulation. So I have not, um, still been a big part of that group. I'm, I mean, obviously it's, uh, near and dear to my heart. And so anything that they need, I'm always like, please reach out and let me, let me be a part of, of however I can help because you helped me so much in my journey. I'd love to help others. And so I've worked with a lot of educator students or people that aspire to become simulation educators. And it's really awesome to be able to look back and see some of them now taking simulation director positions and, um, you know, really moving up or presenting at conferences. And I'm like, that's awesome that I was able to give back to them as that group had given to me.

Deb:

Right? No, it's, it's a mentor mentee relationship with people who are just getting into simulation. Excellent. Excellent. Uh, I know I had Lee who's one of your directors of Sim center at one of your locations. Physical locations was one of my nursing students. Uh, I think I actually pinned her. So she, she, um, you know, she was trained at, at where I was at and, uh, yeah, it is a lot of mentoring and simulation simulationist in general. Just want to give back, it's almost like, you know, sharing it, your, your beliefs with Sim like-minded people. All right. Uh, I'm gonna ask you my next question, which is, tell me about your favorite simulation story or most impactful.

Abbey:

Yeah, so I have a couple of stories. I think one of them is, like I said, my start in interprofessional assimilation and education, and not really knowing I wasn't trained that way, you know, uh, when I went to nursing school and not, not knowing what that entailed, what did that look like? And so being able to see all of these professions come together and really that pre-briefing and debriefing were the powerful pieces for me because they get to learn about each other and learn about each other's professions. And so them not knowing what really does a nurse do.<laugh>, you know, do you just take the orders and, and do'em? What is a part of your role? Um, another big piece of that is we had dental hygiene students that also became a part. And, and for me learning about their profession, you know, as a faculty and not fully, I knew they cleaned my teeth, right, but I didn't know their scope of, of work. And so they're able to run a simulation where we had a patient that had an infection in their leg, and it was actually the call out from the dental hygiene student that said, wow, this infection is affecting this and this and this in their body and their labs. And what do we, you know, what can we do to take care of that? And I thought, wow, they understand infection. Yes, they work in the mouth, but they have to understand the whole body. And so all of the students learning about each other in that, and then completing the, the simulation and we would do kind of a three phased approach throughout our day. And they were in small groups in interprofessional groups. And so by the third group that completed that next step of that simulation, they were just like up above here, maybe above practitioner level, because they had really built on each other as a team and learned how to communicate more effectively. And so they were just functioning like a well oiled machine by the end of that simulation day. Uh, and then being able to debrief that too, and each profession say, wow, you really brought this to the table. Thank you for this. Or here's some other suggestions of how we could have done this better. So that's been really powerful or impactful to me so much so that I believe interprofessional simulation should be completed at every level of learning. Even our practitioners, you know, should maintain competence in that, on an annual, you know, basis, at least so that we can have better communication because we know that's where a huge breakdown, you know, in our practicing world is. And so if we can do that better,

Deb:

No, I completely agree. And I, as far as your dental story, I find that I don't believe it's my belief that we don't have a dental school that has been accredited for, by the society for simulation to healthcare yet. However, I see it as a great opportunity. I remember when I was a nurse in the emergency department and we had a patient and the dentist had given Tallen inverside into the vein, just IV. This goes back, this goes back years, you know, 25, 30 years ago. And, um, the patient came in, she was young, like 27 years old in full arrest. And, you know, we were unable to resuscitate her, but I mean, to think they do a lot of high risk, low frequency things in the dental chair. And how is that team prepared, you know, with an airway to take care of'em. So I think that's an opportunity, more simulation to be utilized.

Abbey:

Definitely. I think all healthcare professionals can see where they connect or intersect. Cause that was a great place where a handoff, you know, may, may or may not have helped with the outcome. So how could all these professions sort of work together, even though they don't work together maybe on a day to day basis, but it does inform their practice. Um, they work together. My other story was about a student. This was probably one of the, one of my most impactful to my simulation career, but I had a, a master's in nursing educator student. And so she wanted to learn more about simulation and she said, can I come and spend some hours with you in the SIM lab and see how this works? And so she came and was an observer really to observe the whole process, the faculty pre-brief the debrief, the scenario. Then it happened to be on sepsis protocol for our students. And so, um, she observed that and she's like, I learned so much about sepsis, right? So then I heard from her probably a month or so later after she had completed her rotation with me. And she said, I have to tell you something about, you know, the simulation that you taught. So she, she had a family member that got very ill, um, and they were on, um, in a medical surgical unit in the hospital and she went to visit them. And she's like, Abby, I saw all these indicators of sepsis because I watched that simulation with you. And so I saw them and I was able to alert a rapid response for her, got her to the ICU. And she ended up decompensating pretty quickly, but because we caught it, she actually got better and was able to go home. But she said she was very sick. Like we didn't know if she was gonna make it. And she said, I am so glad at that point in time, I was there and I was there for that sepsis simulation. And so it actually led her into wanting to, you know, teach in simulation and do more in simulation because of that experience that she had. So that's so impactful because it saved a life. You know, we literally say simulation saves lives, but I think when it comes full circle back to you, it's like, yep. It sure does. And it saved a life here.

Deb:

No, you're a hundred percent. Right. I love that story. And you know, the observers can learn just as much as the actual participants because you're, you're watching with an intention of what would I do. You're not watching it. Like this is a passively and you're going to, you know, see what happens at the end. You're thinking, what would I do if I was in this situation? Yeah. Great, great story. And my next question is where do you see the future of simulation going? If you, you know, do what are your thoughts?

Abbey:

No, thank you. Yeah. I'm always kind of thinking about the future of simulation because I think as simulationist, we have to be ready right. For the next thing, the next step. And so preparing whatever that is at our, our SIM centers or in our programs. So one of them, I think that there's been an increase, you know, in the last several years in realism of simulation with technology. So using technology to do that, you'll see, you know, some of the vendors that are doing that, some of us at our, a t our schools at our programs and centers are doing that because we find pieces of technology we can add to the scenario. So I think that because of that, more and more programs centers are gonna have to make sure they invest in simulation operations specialists or technology specialists, if you will, o r experts, because there's gonna be so much technology, it's gonna be hard for faculty and administration, even to some point to manage that technology themselves. And so having onsite assistance or help with that, I think is gonna be very important for the future. The other thing I think is gonna be important for the future of simulation is with the increase of realism and technology. There's an increase in expense, right, for those things. And so if we need those things, we want those things in our programs, we may have to share our simulation, collateral or equipment with other organizations. So I know there's already some great simulation partnerships out there between maybe an academic institution and a hospital system, maybe for rural, u h, needs there's mobile simulation units, where the cost is, you know, shared across organizations. So I think we might need to see more of that so that the c osts don't get way too much for our organizations to manage simulation. And then I think the other big piece o f, for future of simulation is XR virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality. We've seen a ton of that, u m, with the progression of the pandemic, really propelling people to say, I need something else because I can't go to clinical or I can't do these things. And so with using that now, at least i n our organization, and in some of the literature, you see some pretty positive outcomes of using virtual reality, augmented reality, those kinds of things, not that they would replace clinical or replace our high fidelity simulation labs, but that they can really augment if you will, or, o r provide another layer of learning onto what we're already doing so that our students are even better, right. They're hitting those outcomes a little more easily because they have an extra tool or extra resource to do that. And at Purdue global, we've really taken to working on creating some virtual reality experiences. And so how do we, we create' em for our students, but how could these be helpful, you know, outside of p retty global that we could share with other organizations too, where it fits, you know, and where it makes sense for them to u se. So I think we'll continue to see, see that develop and hopefully improve.

Deb:

I love that. Abby, I love that. And I think one of the things I heard you say is you're doing things in collaboration with hospitals and local areas. And I think that's so important, especially as these hospitals continue to merge together and it, you know, would you, how are, how do you have consistency among the caregivers? Are you, you know, is, is like a Starbucks where you've got they're all the same. Right. So I think that's, that's a good thing. And especially your you're learners. So your, your nursing students, uh, that are coming out of the program will already be acclimated to the healthcare system. So that's gonna take that transition to practice and shorten it a bit, right?

Abbey:

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So I think we, we have four locations currently, uh, that have SIM labs across the country. And so looking at, like you said, how do you standardize that to make sense? So that all the same outcomes are being met as others in the simulation world have probably had to navigate that a little bit and figuring out how do we standardize that? And then with a hospital partner, you know, that we try to have at each of our locations too. So how can we be mutually beneficial to both organizations and both of us meet our needs. And so we did do Deb presentation, um, on healthy simulation.com. This has been a year, year and a half ago. So it's there, you know, if anyone wanted to hear about how are we standardizing simulation in our undergraduate nursing program across multiple locations, because it is, you know, a lot of moving parts as others may know. Uh, and how do you do that and how do you, what are, what are our challenges, you know, what were our opportunities, uh, to make that successful?

Deb:

Right? No, I, I, I love it. And I, you also talked about the integration of VR, AR and<inaudible> and deliberate about making decisions on what products we're gonna start to use. And, and as simulationist, we're involved in the decision making, because we don't wanna have the industry get ahead of us, right?

Abbey:

Yes, I would agree. I think so. So I think that we also need to drive the process because I think the standard, the standards for simulation, I mean, they do and can apply to virtual reality to augmented reality and what we're using. So I would agree, and also the content, you know, it's the content appropriate. That's important. Does it align with, you know, your accrediting bodies, whether that's sim accreditation, whether that's, you know, nursing medicine, however, you're accredited, because there are products that may be out there that were created in a silo from, from the technology side and, and they may be awesome technology wise, but then when you're looking at the content and the, the process, well was a standardized, you know, tool used for this skill checkoff that was created or whatever it may be. So you're right. That I think places need to look at that when you're exploring and making sure too that yeah. That your simulation specialist, your simulation educator administrator is included in, in that process as well, because it's not always that you create your own either because that can get very difficult, very expensive to do. And so you're shopping, you know, products that you may wanna buy off the shelf. So make sure that an educator of sorts a simulationist was involved in the process of building those is really important.

Deb:

Excellent. Excellent. I completely agree. Is there any, is there anything else that you'd like to leave our, our listeners with?

Abbey:

I don't think so. I think just, I wanna say I wanna be an advocate, um, and continue to assist wherever I can. So, uh, in, you know, our listeners, if you ever need some kind of support or you need help with your return on investment presentation that you are, whether that's VR, whether that's high fidelity, whether that's just, we want a simulation program, I think that I wanna be of assistant. So if I can ever be a support, you know, to anyone anywhere, please reach out and I would love to help.

Deb:

Thanks Abbey. Now, where could our listeners get ahold of you if they, they wanted something from you, they wanna learn more about Purdue or any of the things that you saw about today?

Abbey:

Yeah, so, uh, my email address would probably be the easiest and it's just my first name.my last name, Abbey elliot@purdueglobal.edu.

Deb:

Okay. And they'll be in the show notes so that if some, you know, anybody wants to look, they can locate you in the show notes. Do you, are you on LinkedIn or social media anyway?

Abbey:

Yes. Also LinkedIn, I'm definitely out there. So reach out, I try to share things that may help others, other simulationist or other programs that are exploring different avenues of simulation.

Deb:

This has been a pleasure. I absolutely love your sweet little voice.<laugh>. Thank you. Um, so I appreciate very much this time and look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you. And happy simulating.

Outro:

Thanks for joining us here at The Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed connect with us at www.innovativesimsolutions.com and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button. So you never miss an episode of The Sim Cafe.