Tiffani has twenty-one years of nursing experience and nine years dedicated to the art of simulation. I engage students as active learners who reflect critically on what they have learned and apply it to the ongoing development of critical thinking skills. My teaching philosophy is that “as a proponent of simulation, it is my duty to help learners engage and practice nursing skills safely, so they are competent healthcare workers.” In my current role, as an associate clinical professor and simulation center coordinator at Auburn University College of nursing, I coordinate, design, and implement all simulation activities for pre-licensure nursing students. I hold the following certifications: as a critical care registered nurse (CCRN-K), as a certified healthcare simulation educator (CHSE), and as a certified healthcare simulation operations specialist (CHSOS) She is an active SSH, INACSL, ASPE, and INACSL ad-hoc diversity committee member (IncluDE). My role is pivotal in onboarding and mentoring lab RNs (nurses hired to work in the simulation and skills labs) and new faculty, training them in simulation methodologies, prebrief, and debrief. I have numerous publications and presentations on simulation-based topics up to the international level having presented at IMSH, INACSL, and ASPE.
Dr Chidume's email: Tlc0045@auburn.edu
Innovative SimSolutions.
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Tiffani has twenty-one years of nursing experience and nine years dedicated to the art of simulation. I engage students as active learners who reflect critically on what they have learned and apply it to the ongoing development of critical thinking skills. My teaching philosophy is that “as a proponent of simulation, it is my duty to help learners engage and practice nursing skills safely, so they are competent healthcare workers.” In my current role, as an associate clinical professor and simulation center coordinator at Auburn University College of nursing, I coordinate, design, and implement all simulation activities for pre-licensure nursing students. I hold the following certifications: as a critical care registered nurse (CCRN-K), as a certified healthcare simulation educator (CHSE), and as a certified healthcare simulation operations specialist (CHSOS) She is an active SSH, INACSL, ASPE, and INACSL ad-hoc diversity committee member (IncluDE). My role is pivotal in onboarding and mentoring lab RNs (nurses hired to work in the simulation and skills labs) and new faculty, training them in simulation methodologies, prebrief, and debrief. I have numerous publications and presentations on simulation-based topics up to the international level having presented at IMSH, INACSL, and ASPE.
Dr Chidume's email: Tlc0045@auburn.edu
Innovative SimSolutions.
Your turnkey solution provider for medical simulation programs, sim centers & faculty design.
The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of anyone at Innovative Simsolutions or our sponsors.
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Intro:Welcome to]The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host, Deb Tauber 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 cup 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're truly blessed to have Dr. Tiffani Chimude. Tiffany comes from Auburn University in Alabama and she has 21 years of nursing experience and nine of them have been dedicated to simulation. We're gonna talk and really learn more about Dr. Chimude. Would you like me to call you Dr. Chidume or Tiffani?
Tiffani:Tiffani is fine.
Deb:Okay. Thank you very much and welcome to The Sim Cafe. Why don't you tell our guests a little bit more about yourself?
Tiffani:Okay. Well first of all Deb, I'd like to thank you for having me and I've been listening to The Sim Cafe and I enjoy listening to all of the featured guests before my, myself. I know some of them personally, so it's good to see, you know, hear that side of them also. But I'm like them. Tiffani Chimude and I have worked in simulation for nine years at two different entities. I also work some with our local hospital and implementing Sims at their facility are having their nurses to come here. I started out at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and that's why I received my bachelor's in nursing. I worked at Huntsville Hospital for a couple of years before kind of moving around and finding out what I wanted to do, um, before we ended up in Auburn for my husband to go to school. And I worked at our local hospital here in Auburn for about 14 years. And I was teaching as well as working in the ICU where I worked for 13 years. And that's where my love for teaching really grew. I was that nurse that I always loved having students and I would have some of the clinical instructors or professors say, You really need to teach. You really need to teach. I'll get to my class and be ready to explain something. And that's like, Miss Tiffani already,, like told us this so we feel good about it. And they're like, You really need to teach. So it got me a little while to kind of come to the terms of that. And then I ended up applying for a couple of teaching jobs and I received one full time and then I went per diem in the unit. And I also worked in application support for a while while teaching. But at one point I, it seemed like I had like four jobs, but they were all like part-time equal and up to full-time hours. So once I got into teaching, I really just loved it. And so here I am.
Deb:I appreciate that. And I also appreciate the fact that someone recognized that you were good with students because we all know the nurse who stands in the corner with her hands behind her back and has that look on her face, like, I do not want a student to be with. Right. And until we can break that culture and create a more embrace to these new nurses, we're gonna be stuck with kind of some of the same old, same old. Yes. So thank you Tiffani. Why don't you share with our guests your journey into simulation specifically?
Tiffani:Okay.<laugh>, that is the funny story. Um, I did not want to do sim. I was enjoying teaching. It was very soon after I had obtained the job as a professor or you know, a faculty member. And the lady who was doing STEM at the facility I was working within decided to retire, kind of like outta nowhere. I think she had been saying she was gonna retire for years and then she actually retired and they're just like, Hey, we need you to take this position. I was like, No, I don't want this position. And they're like, We need you to take this position. And I was just like, I really wanna stick with teaching. I don't know anything about sim And I didn't have SIM when I went to school, so I didn't really understand everything about it. Just, you know, what I had participated in as a faculty member and the chair at the time said, Tiffany, listen, if we here for this job and we put it out with the clinical experience that we need with somebody that's familiar with students, familiar with the hospital setting in various clinical settings is basically gonna be missing everything but your picture right next to it. And so I was just like, Okay, I'll think about it. And I had other faculty members kind of say, Oh yeah, well you have the informatics background, you'd be great in it. And I think my, my biggest motivator was my husband because I really loved the clinical setting. That was my favorite thing of clinical. I was just like, uh, lecture hall teaching is okay, but I really shine in the clinical setting. And my husband was just like, Just do what you do, but do that all the time. Just turn your simulation into what you do in the clinical setting all the time. And he said, You have the ultimate autonomy. And he was just like, And it'll be you creating the experiences that you love for students to have. And that's what pushed me into saying yes to the job. So I started researching and learning about as much as I can. I didn't get any onboarding in sim, so I was just kind of drawn with, oh, learn how to use the cameras learn. So I was on the phone with reps from three different companies trying to say, Hey, do you provide a refresher course or an initial course? Cause I don't know what I'm doing. I basically know how to turn them on. And so everybody was very amenable. The AELD do and Gamar all their reps were willing and able to talk with me. That the best house, the simulators where I work at before.
Deb:How long have you been in simulation?
Tiffani:Uh, nine years.
Deb:Okay. Excellent. You have your CHSE and we'll talk, uh, more about accreditation and the journey through that, which you guys got in July. Yes. Uh, next I wanna ask though, why don't you share with our guests your favorite or most impactful simulation story?
Tiffani:All right. So my most favorite, most impactful simulation is anything dealing with a CPR type of simulation. And everywhere I've worked, we've done this type of simulation. And where I worked previously, this was like a three to four hour simulation. Having the students to make sure they knew the correct hand placement, the right rate, the right depth. And I would play on call me maybe to get them to the right rate. And so it, so they just felt, okay, I get it. And at one instance, we just had, one of the students just couldn't get her hand placement right? And she was a second chance student. She had not been successful. So this was her second attempt at the class and she just couldn't get her hand placement right. And she was, and I could see from behind the wall that she was getting very frustrated. And so I walked up from behind the wall and I picked her hands up and I put them in the right place. And I said, You have to fill here. I said, third, fourth, or fifth intercostal space. I said, mid-sternal line. And so I said, You have to feel it. I said, I said, You won't have these kind of guidelines when you actually are doing cpr, but you have to know the area of where to go. And so once I let my hands up, she did perfect cpr and a couple weeks later she came back to the SIM lab and she said, Miss Chimude, I just wanted to thank you. And I was like, For what? And she's like, All these sims that you take your time planning for us and doing for us. And she's like, What you don't know is the very next day after that sim, she got assigned to a patient that was coding before she even got report from the nurse. The nurses in the room performed CPR and three nurses were in there alone with the physician and they all were trying to revive this patient. And they're just like, Okay, yeah, you know, he's not gonna come back. And so she volunteered. She's like, I, she said she thought that I just did this in STEM lab yesterday. And she said, Can I try? And so she tried and she revived the patient with her CPR and the doctor told her not to move. And she said that was the best feeling that she had ever had. And that rejuvenated the reasons as to why she wanted to become a nurse. And she wanted me to pin her. And that was actually the last student that I pinned before I came to Auburn. So that, that story sticks with me that forever Will and I have on my wall, I have the moment o f why I do what I do and me pinning her is one of the pictures that's on my wall.
Deb:I love that. I love that story. I know, it's just such an honor to have the opportunity to pin, uh, a nursing student. Yes. Yeah. I pinned my daughter and several others and it was yeah, in honor. Yeah.
Tiffani:Even at Auburn, it's a very impactful simulation. We have the students coming back almost every semester are emailing. I was so prepared because I say, don't I say, you know how to do this, Don't be a wallflower because you'll get kicked out of the room. Get in there and tell'em that you know what you're doing. I said, You're gonna stand out and people are gonna be requesting your name and you're gonna have a job before you leave there, before you graduate. And a lot of'em just like, I did it. I felt good about it, I'm ready. And so that makes me know that this is what I'm supposed to do.
Deb:I agree. Where do you see the future of simulation going, Tiffani? Do you have any?
Tiffani:I think virtual reality, augmented reality, I think that's just gonna continue to grow because while it can be expensive with the cost of simulators, I think it's, it's pretty comparable. But the immersive nature, that virtual reality and augmented reality xr, all that brings is insurmountable. I recently received a grant with two other, my team members working in vr and we just had a come and see just this past Friday. And our dean and our associate dean were so immersed and they were just like, Oh my goodness, this is unreal. I mean, they were checking blood sugars, they were hearing things, but, and then taking off the headset and just like, I'm in the same place that I thought I was. That the, the environment is so immersive and you can move so freely and do so much more than you can. I think that that's gonna continue to grow because you can replicate that same experience for students and it's in a controlled environment like simulation. But with, you know, when you have students with SIM and a mannequin, you don't know how they're gonna handle that. And they're still gonna say, Oh, as a mannequin is not so real if if it a real patient, you know, then we have standardized patients, they're like, Oh, the real person may be nervous. They're just like, Okay. But with the vr, the patients talking to them, they're really there. They can really feel them through the hands bit that they want. So it knocks out a lot of the possible excuses that can come about. So I think that's gonna just continue to grow.
Deb:That's a really good point. I know I went to Dave and Buster's u m, Monday night and I brought two, my daughter and I b rought two, three y ear olds and t hey got o n a, like a pretend motorcycle and t hey're virtual reality goggles o n. So I mean the future is, it's o n u s and the kids are, a re g onna just know this. Just like they knew the c ell p hones when they were emerging technologies a nd need to be mindful of everyone's different levels of expertise. Y es. Thank you. Now Tiffany, can you share some lessons on where you w ere and what you did during the C ovid Pandemic and some lessons that were learned in your center?
Tiffani:Sure. So when Covid hit and started just doing so rapidly throughout the country, the Auburn administration actually requested the different colleges, schools, the departments to come up with Continuency plans if we were to have to go virtual or shut down or anything. And so we were very forward thinking students were actually on spring break during this time. So our lab faculty and our lab staff, we got together for all the remaining stems that we had. We acted as the nurses and the student and the patients in scenarios and recorded everything. We have a sim op specialist who we decided, you know, we had to go through what we wanted with the course leaders. So we sniped the videos, edited them, did close captioning and everything in a very short period of time. So all the sims that we had remaining, we lost not one. So we continued on, I had to convert all of our templates to the virtual format. We already had implemented the set M for our evaluations. So I jumped on and converted that to Qualtrics with permission of Leighton and Companies. But I called Kim whenever they come up with all these awesome tools and they then, when I was emailing with Kim, she actually told me, Hey, we've actually modified to say, um, to encompass the screen based of virtual simulations. So it went from, I actually did this first to, to I communicated. And so it worked great. So the way we did it, we had PowerPoints, we embedded the videos and PowerPoints and then had like a, after each clip they did like a debrief and then at the end we made it a QR code. They scan it and just like how we do here, they have to show the thank you for completing this evaluation to ensure that we're getting that data. They had to flip their phone around and show us and then they were excused from the sim. So we didn't lose any sims, we didn't lose any data through the entire COVID process.
Deb:Excellent. Excellent. I love shout out to Kim Leighton, right?
Tiffani:Yeah, absolutely.
Deb:Absolutely. Kim and Company. So you guys also achieved your accreditation during the pandemic. Why don't you share that with our listeners a little bit? It's such a, you know, as an accreditor, I'm just so humbled to have the opportunity to go into centers and you know, it's almost like go ahead and look in our closets and you know, you get that up front and close, look at what they're doing and there's so many centers that are doing such wonderful and amazing things and within the society we just love to learn about them so that we can advance our practice. So thank you for uh, going through the process and why don't you share a little bit about it.
Tiffani:Okay. It was very tedious<laugh>. Um, in our STEM program we are almost nonstop cause we do all of BSN and some of our grad students like the mps also have some experiences here. So the director of simulation was actually relief a lot from SIM to actually get the packets together. And she was communicating back and forth with the um, accreditors, the sense with me being the coordinator of our eagles of SIM center, I had a lot of the communication because I go back and forth with the course leaders about the changes we're gonna make because we also do evaluations for faculty after each sims like what do you want to improve? And so I take that and I improve the SIMS each semester and through that it was just a lot of communication. I had to pull all types of emails from the inception or the SIM request form, which faculty are required to submit about a semester before they want it implemented. So SIM request forms, communications meetings, how we worked it out. And so we got everything ready. We also have some STEM champions within our faculty that were ready and able to be the voice for the faculty members with the accreditation. And we achieved full accreditation. And I think we are the first in Alabama to receive full and not provisional accreditation for core and for teaching. And we would love to get into research and all that stuff because we've been improving our research also. It was very tedious but the creditors was so understanding you knew everything that that was required of you. We weren't asked anything that was awkward or anything. So the template that is set forth is what you need. They were very accommodating and it really was just like this, it was like casual conversation. We didn't feel like we were put on the spot. And I think all all that also went to our preparation as a team and us knowing our processes and feeling comfortable with our processes and just being able to tell them our processes and have the confidence in there. So it was not fun, I would not say, but that the relief and the joy and pride of achieving it was great.
Deb:Yeah. And the camaraderie between the team, right? Like that day you're like, yes, we got it, we did it. Yes.
Tiffani:Yeah, we're still celebrating and it was, it was at the end of July I found out.
Deb:Great. Great. And I know that you have your CSSE your CHSE and your CHSE-SOS, right? Yes.
Tiffani:That might be a regional thing because we call it chess here<laugh>, but I hear CHSEE. So yes, I have my CHSE and my CHSE-SOS I dual certified in simulation hopefully to get my CHSE-A soon. And I was the second in Alabama to be dual certified as a CHSE AND my CHSE-SOS after my l ong t erm mentor, L ori L isi who all praises go t o. And she is just a great person inside and out and t hem E o ut. And one of my other mentors at T herea Gore i s a great mentor. Penni Watts is a great mentor and Desiree Diaz, K elly Bryant is a friend a nd a mentor. And so at some point you don't know if i t's mentors or you just collaborate a nd just have a mutual respect f or each other.
Deb:Yeah, I totally agree. And it's funny because like I said, I have a couple grandkids and so they have imaginary friends, PD and Joey, that's their imaginary friends. Okay. And I like to think that since I started doing these podcasts, I have virtual friends that are not just in my mind, but they're virtual. Yes. Colleagues and friends. So thank you for sharing that. And yes,
Tiffani:Even Ben and Small here, I think somewhere under there we're like we're best friends in another life,<laugh>. Cause we get along, we've worked on projects together, we're on a INASCL's include diversity committee together and we've done a scop and review on diversity and simulation together, being Inlands, being inland Maryland. So we had Denise, just great teamwork and like I said, collaboration. I love collaborating and networking and not just being in one spot, but being able to reach and talk to others in the community that are just not near where you are because that's what SIM needs to reach. SIM just doesn't need to reach you and what you're doing and where I am at Auburn, but what can I do to make an impact across the SIM world?
Deb:Thank you for, for what you're doing. Thank you. What's the biggest thing you'd like people to know? Something that you learned and it changed the way you practice. So essentially like a personal aha moment.
Tiffani:Okay. I think that would, my biggest aha moment would be when I was kind of thrust into Sam and not really understanding what sim was. And this, this quote that always sticks with me that has for over a decade. And that is you can't teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you don't go. So I did not want to be the type of person who would really accept a job and not know what's going on. So once I got the first simulation position, I was all in. I was researching for next or SSH, EMS, I was looking up trying to find out everything I could about sim and the standards of best practice. And that was a real leap because at the same time I'm trying to learning, I'm supposed to be facilitating this within a month or so. So it just took a lot of groundwork that I didn't want to feel like I ever had imposter syndrome. And so that's where that quote kind of comes in. It's just like I wanted to understand what I was doing so that I came off authentic to my learners or my students. So where I worked before, it was a health science vision. So not only was I doing nursing, I was also facilitating for paramedic students and red tech students, radiology technology students. And so I had to talk to those faculty members and say, Okay, what are you expecting from this? Let me know what do you usually do in this situation so that when I'm presenting the scenario for them, then I can communicate that and understand that their actions may not be that of as a nurse and why. So I think that's, that was my biggest aha moment. And once you get into it, then yeah. Yeah. I can't show you what I don't know and I can't teach you, but I wanna know it so that I can
Deb:Thank you. Why don't you share that quote one more time.
Tiffani:You can't teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you don't go.
Deb:Excellent.
Tiffani:I don't know who wrote it. That is is been one of my favorite codes for a long time.
Deb:Thank you. Now is there anything that you wanna ask me?
Tiffani:Sure. I would love to know about your partnership with SimGHOSTS and I know Innovation Simsolutions, you all have created that partnership. What are the benefits that you see coming out of that collaboration?
Deb:Thank you for asking that. And it is such an honor to be partnered with the GHOSTS, having the GHOSTS at your back. You know, they're not for profit. They are all volunteers. Everybody. Farooz is a volunteer. I think they have one person who's a paid person, but everybody else is just fueled with passion for wanting to do things to make simulation a better place. And, and you know, I I think about like some of the people who are on those teams, you reach out to'em and they're no heirs about'em. Just, you know, willing to freely give you information. Chuck Teskey, David Chablac, William Belk, Lance, uh, uh, Farooz. All of them are just BillyPashow. They just wanna give and it's so, it's very enlightening to me and very, um, it warms my heart. Thank you for asking. Now is there anything else you wanna leave our listeners with?
Tiffani:I just like to leave everybody with don't be afraid of a challenge because you never know where it's gonna take you. And as much as I loved where I worked previously before coming here, like understand sometimes you know, you need to be up for the challenge and sometimes you just need to be repotted to grow. So don't be afraid to take those big steps into the unknown cuz it might be really good for you. Cause I never knew I would have this affinity for a simulation that, that I do now. And now I can't see myself doing anything else.
Deb:Thank you Tiffany. Now if our listeners wanted to get ahold of you, where's the best place to get ahold of you and how? Okay,
Tiffani:Um, yeah, my email is everywhere. I think my cell phone number probably is too, but my email is DLC0045@auburn.edu.
Deb:Thank you. And we will put that in the show notes. So happy simulating.
Tiffani:Yes. Happy simulating
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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.