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The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~
The Road to IMSH 2024: A Sneak Peek with Cheryl Camacho sponsored by Interact Solutions.
Are you ready to be inspired? Join us in conversation with the phenomenal Cheryl Camacho, a leading light from Nationwide Children's Hospital. As she unravels her journey from being a paramedic to becoming an influential figure in the field of simulation, you'll be captivated by the dedication and perseverance this accomplished professional embodies. Particularly noteworthy are Cheryl's future plans and her innovative approach to simulation, backed by a formidable support system of team and senior leadership.
We also take you on a journey to the sun-soaked city of San Diego, the host city for the highly anticipated International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) 2024. As we converse with an enthusiastic member of the planning committee, you'll sense the excitement brewing around the event. With keynote speakers that promise to captivate, a record-breaking number of abstract submissions, and attendance figures that are set to impress, the conference is shaping up to be a pivotal event in healthcare simulation. Highlighting the event is the Diamondball, an amazing opportunity for attendees to celebrate, network, and forge connections.
As we gear up for the IMSH conference, Cheryl gives a candid account of her CHSE certification journey and encourages others to walk the same path. She eloquently underlines the crucial role of self-belief and confidence, serving as a beacon of encouragement for all in attendance. We also invite you to explore the exhibit of Interact Solutions, our proud sponsor for IMSH 2024, and discover their comprehensive solution for simulation needs. So, plug in those headphones, settle in, and join us as we reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation.
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 Sim Solutions or our sponsors. This episode of The Sim Cafe is brought to you by Interact Solutions. Interact Solutions is a revolutionary and cost-effective audio-visual simulation learning management system developed for instructors to record, organize, schedule, annotate, and debrief student simulations, delivering timely, evidence-based feedback. Interact Solutions is a revolutionary and cost-effective audio-visual simulation learning management system developed for instructors to record, organize, schedule, annotate and debrief student simulations, delivering timely, evidence-based feedback. Interact Solutions is an ideal complement to your existing curriculum and can be customized for your simulation center. Contact Interact Solutions today. Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host, Deb Tauber, and co-host Jerrod Jeffries as they sit 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 Tauber:Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe, and today we are truly honored and humbled to have the opportunity to interview Cheryl Camacho from Nationwide Children's Hospital. Cheryl, welcome to the podcast and thank you so much for joining us.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yes, thank you.
Cheryl Camacho:Absolutely. Thank you for offering.
Deb Tauber:Well, and how are you guys today? How are you, Jerrod? How's weather in Nashville?
Jerrod Jeffries:I'm doing great. We have a slew of the middle of the country here. I'm out of Nashville. Cheryl, you're out of Ohio, is that Columbus?
Cheryl Camacho:Columbus Ohio.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah and Deb, as usual in Chicago, but excited to chat today. So first maybe let's level set if you want to share with our listeners a little bit about yourself and then even some of your journey into simulation.
Cheryl Camacho:Sure, so my name is Cheryl Camacho, just talking about my journey. So I started out my medical career as a paramedic. I became a paramedic when I was 18 years old, did a lot of inter-facility transports and did 9-1-1 as well. I met an amazing educator at Hopkins. One day she says hey, I got this job opening for a pediatric educator. So as paramedics, our worst calls are pediatrics and obstetrics. So we try to avoid those and I was like I don't think I want to do this, I don't know pediatrics. She's like just apply. I applied for the position and I was awarded the position as a pediatric educator at Hopkins. That started my simulation career. As you guys know, there's many world-renowned simulationists as Hopkins and I had a lot of amazing mentors there. That started out my simulation career and that's how I started out low fidelity, high fidelity, overseeing a lot of their pediatric education in their outreach program and then doing a lot of their certification programs, such as PAUS. As a person that everybody knows, that can describe me as I can't sit still. So I looked for another opportunity.
Cheryl Camacho:While staying at Hopkins, I took a position at MedStar Health as their director of certifications and programs and I went there as a leader as a director. I stayed there for a few years and then my simulation mentor says, hey, I got this job for you Just because I was looking for something more. And I was craving for something more and I was a little stagnant in my role. And I will say, we all get in those positions where we can do our role in our sleep and I needed something more. And she says, truly, I have this role for you. And I was like, ok, no problem, and she's like it's in Ohio. So I came out to Ohio the weekend after July 4th and met with amazing leadership team here. I didn't anticipate an eight-hour session, kind of like under the spotlight of getting Asked around a ton of questions, and I met an amazing team here that I immediately clicked with. The senior leadership here was absolutely phenomenal, I mean from the admins to the CMO and the CMO and I had a long conversation. We actually got in trouble because we were talking too much about simulation and patient safety. I looked for every red flag not to come out here, because I have two amazing kids and I would have to upward them and bring them to Ohio and I just looked for all the red flags and I couldn't find one, so I was like, alright, we're gonna jump ship. 30 days later, here I arrived in Ohio in September of 2019.
Cheryl Camacho:Since being here, I will say one of the things that I didn't know, that I was missing, that I found here, was the amazing support from the leadership. The sky is a limit here and they consistently push you. I would say from my medical directors to my VP. I don't think that many times when I look at professional development and I say, hey, I want to do this, they don't tell me no. Many times they look at me and say are you crazy? Do you want to add something to your plate? Are you serious? But I will say, between my team here in the simulation center, as well as my senior leadership, they support me 100% and I truly believe in my career. That's what I was missing and I have found a home and I found the amazing support.
Cheryl Camacho:And every time I say, hey, guys, do you want to do something? And they're like no, my VP is great. And she's like can you just give yourself some time before the next step? And I, I look for the next step and I know what it is. We're gonna entertain that next year, but I will say every opportunity that I've taken the team here, no one has told me no and everybody's jumped on board and I will say the one thing I love about my career Is we have the one team culture. So that is the biggest thing that drives me every day is we're all here together and we're all here to do the same for our patients and patient safety, and I will say that's my driving force. So welcome to Ohio. I have a OH.
Cheryl Camacho:I have a 22 year old and a 14 year old that Some days they wonder what we're doing. But you know, our first Halloween here there was snow, which we were not used to in Maryland. So that's where we're at.
Jerrod Jeffries:Well, I will say sure, I think you probably made 99 of our listeners quite jealous Because I think you've landed in an excellent spot, and to just dig in a little bit more is At a Nationwide Children's Hospital. What's your exact role there now?
Cheryl Camacho:I'm the Director of their simulation and outreach program.
Jerrod Jeffries:Okay, fantastic, and I love that. You even get in a little trouble when you geek out too much on simulation. That's, that's always a good sign You're looking for red flag, but then you actually get the green light. You're like okay, these people get me.
Cheryl Camacho:I don't have to.
Jerrod Jeffries:You know I can use abbreviations and I don't have to look like a complete fool when I'm when I'm geeking out this hard. So that's, that's wonderful. I'm happy that you're in Ohio and and that Nationwide Children's Hospital has you.
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah, it's an absolutely wonderful organization.
Deb Tauber:Fantastic, and I know that you guys just became fully accredited by s, so congratulations on that.
Cheryl Camacho:Thank you Um long time coming.
Deb Tauber:Congratulations on your own personal journey of becoming a fellow with SSH and you'll get your yellow lanyard, so congratulations. And you're also a reviewer, a site reviewer, so that's another SSH accomplishment.
Jerrod Jeffries:Absolutely All sorts of connected.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about your role on the planning committee, how this all came to be, and when you found out, what were you thinking?
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah. So it's one of those that you know SSH has great advertising and says, hey, we have some great opportunities. I will be honest, I didn't think that I would be selected because there's so many other people that have a whole lot more in-depth simulation experience. However, I applied and I got the letter from SSH and I think my first phone call was to my VPM was like are you good with this? And she fully, 100% supported me.
Cheryl Camacho:The great thing is, I was with two other people that I've never met before Theresa Gore and Jamie Robertson. We have created a very strong bond between the three of us. I will say, where one of us needs to back off a little bit, the other one steps up. We have joined together and joined forces and I will say I'm extremely excited for IMSH 2024. We've been planning, I think we've been together. I would say we met the beginning of January and we have learned each other's nuances which is really nice and strengths and weaknesses. But I will say the hard work is still yet to come because we are less than two months away. So we're definitely looking forward to wrapping it up and then handing it off to IMSH 2025, but not before celebrating the great work that we've done.
Jerrod Jeffries:That's always well deserved and we're excited. I know Deb and I will be there at IMSH 24 in San Diego, so we'll certainly be sitting on there together, all the knowledge you can bestow on us.
Deb Tauber:Absolutely. Yeah, we're going to want to interview you guys post-conference, after the, and see how you're feeling.
Jerrod Jeffries:Is there anything that you're most looking forward to come January?
Cheryl Camacho:Surprisingly, there's many things that I'm looking forward to. I think right now we are starting to interview, doing individual interviews with our four keynote speakers that we picked many, many months ago. I will say I want to go to a conference where I leave powered and pumped up to be able to come back and make changes, and I will say our four keynote speakers are absolutely phenomenal. I don't think we could have found four better speakers for each day of the week, and they support our theme, which is the idea theme so innovate, disseminate, educate and advocate. Each one of them are taking a topic each day and they're going to go ahead and use that topic to create a program for all of us. But I will say they are definitely excited and exhilarating. We had one of our first meetings yesterday with a speaker and I will say, after 23 minutes of talking to her, it was absolutely amazing. I'm like all right, life's good, let's go. So that was absolutely wonderful. I'm excited about our keynotes.
Jerrod Jeffries:Okay, so, keynotes being one.
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah, keynotes being one, I will say I believe that we've accepted the most entries and submissions this year. There's a lot of entries that are very new this year, but there are some that are repeating from last year. One of the things that I constantly hear is especially from people going to IMSH the first time is I don't know how I'm going to make all of them. It's okay, we all want to go to every one of them, but then there's also opportunity for next year, based upon their reviews that if they keep doing great work, they're coming back for next year.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah, you got to remember. You can only be one place at one time.
Cheryl Camacho:Oh, it's very hard I call it the buddy system to link up with somebody in your organization and one go one way and one go the other way and then share notes.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah, definitely. Well, those are two really good ones. I also am looking forward to the keynotes, and that's great that there's been a record number of abstracts and submissions that have been handled through the conference this year, so congratulations.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, and I are going to be doing a little presentation, so we're excited about that. Yeah, tuesday.
Jerrod Jeffries:That's exciting, yeah, yeah.
Deb Tauber:Definitely yeah. Now why don't you tell us a little bit about attendance so far? How many people are signed up? What's what's going on with that?
Cheryl Camacho:Sure, so I looked up registration. Our last meeting was on November 29th and as of November 29th, there's 2,344 active and pending registrations. That includes our exhibitors. There's 55 people that are attending virtual. One of the highlights for IMSH any IMSH, especially in 2024 is the Diamond ball and as of last week, there were 317 people registered to go to the Diamond Ball as well. This is one of our most impressive attendees attended IMSHs so far.
Jerrod Jeffries:The Diamond Ball is always so much fun.
Cheryl Camacho:And it's great.
Jerrod Jeffries:I mean, I guess you know, in some people's professions or line of work they get dressed up more often, but this is always absolutely to the nines and I love seeing the different geographic regions kind of coming in, because you know people in the southeast are always wearing the bow ties and you always have a little different flair when it comes to the formal attire, which is always so much fun to see as well.
Cheryl Camacho:But also you get to see people in their own element rather than yeah. Yeah, I see some of us are. I see them in simulations, but this is, you know, this is truly who people are, and it's a great time to be able to network with your friends as well.
Deb Tauber:And they're all celebrating, you know, becoming credited or becoming certified or, like you, becoming a fellow.
Cheryl Camacho:Exactly.
Deb Tauber:So it's definitely a you know, a great celebration. Yeah, now what about the Expo Hall?
Cheryl Camacho:This one, I have to giggle a little bit this year. I'm quite impressed with the rest of the planning committee. So far, our exhibitor hall is completely 100% sold out. There are over 200 exhibitors and the great thing is, out of those 200 exhibitors, 50% of them have asked to increase their size for their booth space. So I'm just asking for an increased size is going to be more opportunity for education, more opportunity to see the new, latest and greatest tools that are out there, but then also a networking opportunity for all of us as well.
Jerrod Jeffries:And I think that's always a great sign when you're when exhibitors are asking to increase the booth size. That's not only is that great for SSH and the conference itself, but it's more, more exciting for the industry as a whole because, like we have been developing and putting in all this time, research, energy resources into what we're developing, we need to showcase it and I think that's a that's a sign of how the healthcare simulation across IPE is really maturing and developing. So I think that's an incredible indicator of how the growth in the industry is really happening, which is, of course, kind of presented or debuted at IMSH Every year.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, we want to thank our sponsors. Don't forget to visit booth 1047, 1047 with our sponsors at Interact Solution if you attend IMSH in San Diego in 2024. So, thank you, interact. How many vendors are there in total? You said it's sold out, so how many are there?
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah, so we have over 200 that are registered.
Jerrod Jeffries:Wow.
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah.
Jerrod Jeffries:That's incredible. It's probably a weight off your shoulders and of course Jamie as well, among others of okay, it's happening, there's nothing more we can do, but this is a year long prep, that of course San Diego you can hardly pick a better city, but it's always. You know, here's it is Something's going to go wrong. Hopefully it's not a large thing that goes wrong, but it's just something, something minor that only you are ever going to realize. But I'm sure that'll be a weight off your shoulders too.
Cheryl Camacho:I'm excited. I will say, Jamie and Teresa and I we definitely need to stay connected after this. We've formed that great bond. I'm sure something will go wrong. We had an opportunity last year to meet the IMSH 2023 team and they were trying to share some of the tricks of the trade without scaring us. But to see some of the SSH staff they are constantly busy from the time they touch down to the time they leave and I will say they're overwhelmed. I commend them for everything that they're doing and their nicest can be the whole entire time that they're interacting you, even though you have hundreds of people walking around and everybody asking something from you. It's quite impressive that the things that they go through but they pull it off and do amazingly well.
Jerrod Jeffries:I don't think you get enough gratitude from all the attendees of what you all are doing, so thank you on behalf of the 2,344 people that are attending.
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah, it's quite impressive.
Jerrod Jeffries:No question, no question. And I also want to make sure that we have time for maybe pivoting a little away from IMSH, but from your role including Hopkins MedStar, now nationwide Chutherin. Are there any words of wisdom that you would want to share or you want our listeners to take away from our conversation with you?
Cheryl Camacho:I think the biggest one and I tell my team this all the time is the sky is the limit. If you think that you can do it and many of them are I will say, in my first year here, I encouraged everybody to get the CHSE certification. I'll be blatantly honest. I was one of the ones that was kicking and screaming. We studied together. We every I believe it was every two weeks we met and we sat down and we took a chapter and we went over the chapter. I'll be blatantly honest.
Cheryl Camacho:I used some of the books, I used some of the resources I used to SSH Blueprint as well, and I didn't tell anybody that I was going. It was in August of 2020 and I didn't tell anyone because I was like, if I'm the director and I fail, this is going to be absolutely horrible and no one's going to do this. As soon as my screen went black and I was like, yep, I broke something. And then you get your letter on the screen and you're like this is not real, there's no way that I could have passed this. And granted, I've been doing simulation at that time for over 10 years. And I will say I text the team in our group chat and said hey guys, I passed my CHSE who's next? And then two others immediately behind me didn't tell anybody again, did the same exact maneuver and then now it's a mandate on our team to get our certification within two years. And nobody's kicking and screaming.
Cheryl Camacho:I will say we embed SSH practice in our daily activities so it makes our test a whole lot easier to take, because a lot of the questions were things that I already do on a day-to-day basis, a lot of the decision-making as well, on a day-to-day basis, and I'm like, I believe that we as a team have made it harder, which is why we were probably successful. But we truly read into it, probably a whole lot more than probably just like the rest of the SSH community. But I will say, we do this on a day-to-day basis, have the confidence to go ahead and take the test Everyone is experts in what they do and to just verify that you truly are an expert in simulation, like it'd be fine, and then, once you have it, it's like, wow, that weight is gone. It's a huge accomplishment.
Jerrod Jeffries:Certainly, and congrats again on the tease as well. But it's also funny that you have almost a mic drop moment, Cheryl. You don't tell anybody and then you just like pass.
Cheryl Camacho:No, I did not tell anybody because I'm like if I fail as a leader in this organization, this is going to be bad, Because you know, when you tell everybody, you'll get all these messages that say, hey, did you pass, did you pass and didn't tell anybody.
Cheryl Camacho:And the poor med student sitting next to me that was struggling in math. I feel bad for him Because you go to a testing center where you can't walk in with anything and I didn't realize that the heightened security of those tests and I was like, oh, this is going to be fun, but truly don't overthink it and, just like every test that we all have ever taken, don't second guess yourself. You know, we know what we do on a daily basis and we know the right answer.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah, I mean especially because you're really practicing day to day. So your intuition is correct. But then sometimes you get in your own mind you're like, oh, is it X or is it Y? I think it's X. Now I think I'm convincing myself it's Y, and you're like I do it almost every day, you know. So.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, yeah, I would agree. There's just you just get yourself all caught up in yourself and then, before you know, you're panicking and you're watching the clock and you realize, oh my gosh.
Cheryl Camacho:Oh yeah, I think I went over every question once and then I highlighted the questions that I didn't know. I felt horrible because I felt like I highlighted every question, because I felt like I didn't know it. And then you go through it again. You're like I have 10 minutes to get through 100 in some questions and there's no way I can do this. And then all of a sudden your screen goes black and it's like OK, here we go. So I was pretty rewarding.
Cheryl Camacho:But then you have your peers now that love them to death. But they're like when are you getting your CHSE-A? And I'm like you need to knock that off. I'm not ready for that yet, but it's what we do. We encourage each other as peers. Ok, let's go to the next.
Jerrod Jeffries:Close each other.
Cheryl Camacho:Yep.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, I agree. Anything else that you want to ask us or anything you want to leave us with before we conclude.
Cheryl Camacho:One of my big things that I always get the question of is how do I prepare for IMSH 2024? I'm mentoring a few people through SSH and I will say the agenda builder just got released today. There was an email that was put out. Prepare yourself and arm yourself with what you want to know before you go to IMSH, because once you get there it's truly overwhelming. But prepare ahead of time of truly what vendors you want to get information from, because there's over 200 of them, but also what workshops and what professional development you want to do. I will say have your organization help lead and guide you, but also don't forget about your own professional development. What do you want to learn? What do you want to make yourself better in? Because at the end of the day, it's going to be you making those changes. So you have to figure out where your strategy and your innovation comes from.
Jerrod Jeffries:Very wise words.
Deb Tauber:Right, and I do love your idea about the buddy system.
Cheryl Camacho:Oh yeah.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, I have a friend go to something that you're not going to be able to attend, and then you can compare notes at the end of it.
Cheryl Camacho:Yeah, one of the other things is there's going to be over 2000 of us, so networking is an absolutely amazing opportunity. I'm probably antiquating myself because there's probably the younger generation that's like why don't you have QR codes or things like that? But make sure you have something with your contact information on it. I know we have business cards here. There's people that have QR codes, and then with the new iPhone update of the AirDrop, but just make sure that you have a way to network with people after the conference so those people can help spark your momentum and then you're not just coming back and be like, ok, let me go back to status quo, let me find someone that's able to push me, but also to share those resources once you get done. I am a sage.
Deb Tauber:And I think, if you listen to, Theresa Gorshi shared something you know, when you get to, when you get to IMSH, to realize, oh, I'm with my people.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah.
Cheryl Camacho:I will say it is a very close network and community, even though there's going to be over 2,000 of us like these people get me. I truly wish you know, like my senior leadership here, understand simulation, but I wish you know there was a lot of more leaders and many organizations that came and understood what we do. I know it's a lot of time commitment, but truly understand what a return on investment is and the differences that we make.
Deb Tauber:Yes.
Jerrod Jeffries:But it's also like when you, when you move to Ohio, right, you felt at home. You felt that warm embrace of okay, you're almost inside my mind. I have this creativity, I have this support where it's not every conversation is a battle, because simulation, what's that it's like? Okay, I've already 80% of the way there, because they know what it is and they respect it and support it. And then it's like pushing the innovation pieces, pushing the space forward and the industry forward. So I think that's what you felt in your day to day life, is what the majority feel at IMSH.
Deb Tauber:Absolutely Well. We have just been honored to have you. We're very grateful for all that you're doing for IMSH 2024. And we thank you for that and look forward to seeing you at IMSH. So make sure you come by and visit us in the exhibit hall and thank you so much.
Cheryl Camacho:Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity. All right, happy simulating.
Discalimer/ Interact Solutions Ad/ Intro:Thanks to Interact Solutions for sponsoring this week's episode. Interact Solutions is an ideal compliment to your existing curriculum. Contact Interact Solutions today. It's your one stop shop for your simulation needs A turnkey solution.
