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The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~
Inside SimGhosts 2024: A Peek into the Future with Lynne Madori
What if your journey could lead you from England to Texas, sparking a passion that transforms the healthcare simulation landscape? This episode features Lynne Madori, a certified healthcare simulation educator and an integral part of the SimGhost board. Lynn takes us on her captivating journey, beginning at Jump Simulation Education Center in Illinois, where she transitioned from working with standardized patients to becoming an operations specialist. Her admiration for SimGhost's seamless transition to a virtual conference during the COVID-19 pandemic is truly inspiring, showcasing her dedication to the field and her unwavering belief in the power of simulation.
Ever wondered what makes the SimGhost community so unique and engaging? We dive into the heart of this vibrant, collaborative culture where members feel welcomed and supported, regardless of their experience level. We celebrate the growth in membership and the success of past conferences, with Jacqueline McBride offering a sneak peek into the highly anticipated 2024 SimGhosts Conference at Fairbanks Hall, Indiana University. This year promises strong partnerships, record attendance, and a diverse array of high-quality sessions, all emphasizing the joy of learning through community engagement and fun.
Experience an exceptional conference atmosphere with the Hoover platform at SimGhost events, where interaction and communication are seamlessly facilitated. Imagine arranging meetups, participating in polls, and staying updated with ease. This year’s event includes a unique networking experience at a hangar with party bikes and simulation games, ensuring plenty of opportunities for training and education. With affordable membership and a community eager to share knowledge and ideas, this episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about healthcare simulation. Don’t miss out on these enriching insights!
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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 week's podcast is sponsored by Innovative Sim Solutions. Are you interested in the journey of simulation accreditation? Do you plan to design a new simulation center or expand your existing center? What about taking your program to the next level? Give Deb Tauber from Innovative Sim Solutions a call to support you in all your simulation needs. With years of experience, deb can coach your team to make your simulation dreams become reality. Learn more at www. innovativesimsolutions. com or just reach out to Deb Contact 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 Jar Jeffrie. our host, Deb Tauber and co-host Jerrod Jeffries. Hos De Taube 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 SimCafe.
Deb Tauber:Welcome to another episode of SimCafe Cafe Cafe and thank you for today here Today. We've got Jacqueline McBride s, from SimGhost, we have Lynn Jerrod Midor. Jared is here with me. It's been a bit and we are really excited to meet with Lynn and talk about what she does and hear about SimGhost 2024. So, lynn, why don't you tell our, our listeners, a little bit about yourself?
Lynne Madori:So, yeah, I'm Lynn Mdori. I am not from the US originally, as you may be able to tell. I grew up in England and I've been in the US for the last almost 20 years. My simulation journey began just over 10 years ago and I was very privileged to get involved and just been passionate about it ever since, and I'm a certified healthcare simulation educator. Yeah, I. Currently I'm in Dallas, texas.
Jerrod Jeffries:Well, that's a quite a trip from England. We're in England. I think we have quite a few listeners over there as well.
Lynne Madori:Yeah, I actually in on the East Coast. My hometown is somewhere called Felix Stowe in Suffolk, which is a huge container port. Actually my family is still there, oh great.
Jerrod Jeffries:Pand great pandemic aside. Hopefully you get a visit quite a bit.
Lynne Madori:You know one way or the other yeah, I'm actually heading over there in end of October, beginning of November, and, you know, throw in a sim conference while I'm there.
Jerrod Jeffries:Perfect, perfect we appreciate you being here with us and so maybe a first question for you, though, Lynn is, I mean, coming from England now in Dallas, obviously, f for quite a while, you know how did you hear about SimGhosts? What kind of made you get involved in the organization? What was that kind of tipping point for you?
Lynne Madori:Well, I first heard about SimGhost in my previous position, which was in Illinois, peoria, illinois. I worked with Jump Simulation Education Center and they hosted SimGhost way back when I don't even know the date, but it was a long time ago and so I was completely intrigued. I wasn't technically involved in it, so I would sneak into various events and I just got kind of caught up in the excitement of it. But I wasn't an operations specialist. I was working with SPs. Back then, when I moved to Dallas, my role as an educator overlapped, wasn't an operations specialist. I was working with SPs. Back then, when I moved to Dallas, my role as an educator overlapped with being an operations specialist. I had to learn the operations side of things as well and I decided I would look into SimGhost.
Lynne Madori:I joined SimGhost s, went to present their conference which was going to be in Dallas at Baylor, nice and convenient right. I thought this would be an easy in. And then COVID happened and I'd already had my presentation accepted and the way what I think really got the hooks into me, if you like, is the way they pivoted and they adapted and they put on the best virtual conference I have ever been involved in and I've been on a bit. In years I've been to a lot of conferences right, I've had a lot of experiences to compare it to and this was by far the best the way they engaged, the way they made you feel a part of it.
Lynne Madori:I was brand new. I'm new to operations, new to Sim. They were just incredibly welcoming, very knowledgeable, very organized. I just I'm kind of blown away by it all. And that got me hooked. And then I was like, okay, I, I wanna, I want to go every year, I want to be involved. And you know, one thing led to another right. And here I am now well.
Jerrod Jeffries:Well, we've also heard and just to make sure that was heard by everybody, as Lynn is a board member now for sim goes too. So that's quite the quite the run-up. But what we've heard a lot from other you know people within the simulation field is how sim goes. You know members, of course, people on the board and leadership is always are the pioneers of simulation and you see that throughout conference after conference, as you mentioned you don't know when the one in illinois happened but they try something new and they like okay, it works, let's stick with it, it doesn't work, let's try something else. And I think that's just such a good mentality to have, especially within the healthcare simulation space I agree.
Lynne Madori:I the the way we. I think you know, as you say, simulation, you're constantly having to check.
Lynne Madori:The only thing constant is change right and um you know, you can never guarantee what's going to happen the next day well, even the same day or the next hour actually and so being in a position to quickly adjust, and I think again, that's something that, within SimGhosts, I saw in huge amounts. I've been in simulation about five years when I joined SimGhost sand what I'd experienced I've had some good experiences before, don't get me wrong, but what I saw with this organization is just a level of passion and commitment and kind of what we refer to as the tribe. I mean it's like a family, it's like this huge family that just keeps growing and growing and kind of what we refer to as the tribe.
Deb Tauber:I mean it's like a family, it's like this huge family that just keeps growing and growing and growing, yeah, and I think that's part of it is very not political, I would say because everybody works together and I think that the ability to be nimble and to be able to pivot and change and be open to new ideas makes the group unique, makes the tribe.
Jerrod Jeffries:And to that. You know this is my opinion, but it's passion. Everybody who's involved truly cares about what simulation is and they care about from Jacqueline's perspective. She truly cares about the members that she wants to add value. She wants to see their entire. You know, it's almost like the user journey, right, like what is it if you're signing up for membership and going to the conference? What is this? And I think that's felt by all the board members. It's like, okay, this is what we should try, this, what we should do. This is where it's a gap. That's in, you know, our, I'd say, scope of learning for technicians, operations, anybody involved within SimGHOSTS ghosts.
Lynne Madori:So it carries on anyways that's one of the things, again, Jaceline has done and I'm not trying to make a blush or anything, but she's just done a phenomenal job at leading and developing conferences that impact, they are fun, they are learning, they are quality. I mean she pays attention to every detail, attention to every detail. And again that blew me away with the virtual conference. But then when I go to the in-person ones and I see the attention to detail and the amount of time and energy, she is, as you say, totally committed to making it the best experience, not just the conference but anything that that happens. And I think we're well, we're very fortunate to have her um, but I see that in every. I mean you know we're volunteers predominantly. Jacqueline is an overburdened executive director, but we do it because we're passionate about it and that passion just flows out and how did you get on the board?
Deb Tauber:what was the journey that led you to the board?
Lynne Madori:I think I just I like helping, I like being involved. Volunteering is important to me but it just sort of happened. Really, I was first approached to help lead a work group, the Professional Education and Standards of Practice work group. That I've been doing for two or three years now. We, you know, we support what the board does. Oh, you know, decisions and curricula for the board. That's my passion, education. And I was doing that, volunteering. I like getting involved, I'm passionate about sim, I I don't know. And then they approached me and said, would I be interested? And my initial reaction was, well, duh, yes. But then I had to think about it because obviously it's quite the commitment and I was very fortunate to be selected as one of the new board members. But yeah, it just sort of evolved.
Deb Tauber:And how often do you guys meet?
Lynne Madori:We meet. So from a board member. We have a board meeting every three weeks, but we also well, we stay in touch. We have our own messenger group. We also meet on a Wednesday once a week, get updates. I think we're kind of almost in constant contact. I think I love that there's an open communication between all the board members whenever it's needed, but certainly frequently getting together, which is great.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah, it's great to hear it's a tight-knit community on the leadership level. But going back to maybe more of the overall SimGhost membership and culture when it comes to the community, is there a or maybe this is a personal perspective, I won't say this is well-known, but is there something that you would say like once you're in, once you're joined SimGhost, you'll say something, or you'll stay, or how does that work?
Lynne Madori:I think so. I mean I Jacqueline can speak to I. I know our memberships increased significantly. I mean, the reason I stayed I'll speak to it personally the reason I stayed was because of the welcome, the collaboration, the lack of how do I put this? There is no hierarchy, there is everyone just shares everything. As far as you know, you reach out if you're looking for information on something or you're struggling with something, just just ask and you'll be flooded with people offering to help or share, share documents or share. I think I think that's what really has struck me about the openness, the willingness to share. You know, you can have been in SIM for a day or 25 years, you can be a physician, or you can be straight out of school in your first job as a SIM specialist, having no idea what you're doing, and you have the same, the same level of respect and information.
Jerrod Jeffries:You know it's, it's there and that's something that is, I would say, fairly unique to sim ghosts and to that point, Lynn, I remember in omaha last year we connected, but at at that conference as well, I remember so many people having these, you know, hallway conversations. If it was someone, a presenter, that just gave a speech over a moulage court, I mean, I forget the exact ones, but there were. There were so many conversations in the hallway I was like let me, let me get your email and let me send this over to you. And there was so much collaboration that happens organically, that just like it's just a part of the you know the culture, and I think that's something that's very special yeah, I agree, I mean you can.
Lynne Madori:There are like the legends of sim. If you like that I know, that I.
Lynne Madori:I sort of I'm in awe of, if you like. But at Si ghost it's like they'll just chat with you and I couldn't get over that as a new, new person. I still can't actually, because I still feel like a novice in SimGHOSTS and just they'll give me their email or their phone number. I'm like wow, and I feel comfortable reaching out. You're absolutely right. And again, I think Jacqueline does a great job of designing these events to allow for those organic.
Lynne Madori:I mean, the official term is networking, right, but it's not right it's just it's friends chatting that we put a networking kind of blaze to, but it's chatting yeah, yeah.
Deb Tauber:Now. Do you have a memorable experience or achievement from your time with some ghosts that you want to share with us?
Lynne Madori:I think, honestly, in my time I feel a bit of a fraud like that virtual conference, the. The event in Omaha last week last year was well outstanding. Every conference I've been to, though, is I haven't had a bad experience at a SimGHOSTS ghost conference, and I've been to five now, so I'm super excited about Indianapolis. I can't wait to be there. I think, for me, probably the standout thing is how many people have been attracted, how many people, how the membership has grown and how exciting it is to connect with more and more people. We have a great news feed for members where we can just chat and welcome new people to the group, and I'm overwhelmed with how many new people are joining and getting engaged and getting involved.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting, Jacqueline. Let's kind of switch to you and talk a little bit about what to expect at the 2024 SimGhost Conference, where it's at, and you know what's going on, what the numbers are looking like.
Jacqueline McBride :Sure, we're excited to be at the Simulation Center at Fairbanks Hall at Indiana University our IU Health. The hosts have just been amazing to work with. They are a very strong, very capable group who have been great partners to work with. Our numbers this year are staggering. Every year we have record numbers for the past three years and have sold out. We are actually at an all-time high and thankful for the center to be large enough to hold as many people as possible.
Jacqueline McBride :We always want to be a boutique conference because that really helps with those organic conversations and those conversations in the hall and the ability to talk to our sponsors one-on-one without having to stand in a line. So, yeah, we're really excited about this conference. We also got inundated with abstracts really quality abstracts, to the point that we have six or seven sessions going on at the same time. So you have a lot to choose from and they cover all of the eight domains, from AV to IT to moulage, research and evaluation and technology. So it really covers the gamut and I really felt sorry for the abstract reviewers to have to go through those and make those decisions, because they were hard decisions to make and that's because our simulation community really wants to share. They want to say, hey, this works, you should try it. There's no competition and that's really, really exciting to me.
Deb Tauber:Anything exciting that you can share with us.
Jacqueline McBride :Well you know we always believe in having fun while we learn. So, yeah, we have a lot of things up our sleeve we're very excited about. I think having fun is important to let those guards down so that you do have more of an organic conversation or more finite conversation. There's a lot of things I'm excited for. We formed a partnership with our affiliates, ASPIE and NASCL and SSH a couple of years ago, and we now have pre-conferences at each other's conferences. We don't charge for those, and so we've got a board member from an axle coming. We got leadership for a four-hour review of their standards of practice. We also have leadership of ASPE coming and doing a pre-conference.
Jacqueline McBride :We have Mike Eisenberg, who is a film director, who did the very exciting new film called the Pitch Patient Safety's Next Generation. We'll actually be screening that and he is also a plenary speaker. So that's something unusual and I think we'll be eye-opening to a lot of new simulationists. We also have, of course, a very extensive AI plenary, because it's not going away In fact, it's called AI, ain't going away. How can we use it? How can it assist in healthcare simulation design? So there's a couple of many different sessions that are happening.
Jerrod Jeffries:It's wonderful and, in terms of sponsors, I know that there's a lot of different people that are interested. I mean, is it the usual suspects or is it more focused on VR AI , XR xr stuff, or is it?
Jacqueline McBride :Yeah, we have our continued partners that we could not do these events without, and then we've got about four or five brand new sponsors that are coming in with new products. We're really excited about those because they're going to be launching a few things at our conference, becaus ey'r h doing doing fantastic simulations and for the ultimate goal of course of patient safety.
Jerrod Jeffries:Yeah, I also heard one time. I wish I came up with this, but you guys are the boots on the ground. Everybody there is that one make sure everything happens and make sure it's operational. And obviously you know SIM takes place appropriately and realistically.
Jacqueline McBride :But sometimes yeah, we always joke about SIM ghosts, right, it really is the acronym of the Gathering of Healthcare Simulation Technology Specialists. But we're also the ghosts behind the scenes that make everything happen, that make everything work. We're really important in the process, right? Well, it wouldn't happen without us.
Deb Tauber:Right, right, Lynn. Is there anything you're particularly looking forward to at the conference?
Lynne Madori:Oh, so much. Again, I think this will be my first time as a board member and so the sort of getting involved at that level I'm actually really excited about and being involved in more of the work of it, just even though I know it's going to be a lot of hard work, just seeing it all come together. To me, the exciting part seeing all the hard work, especially that Jacqueline has put in and the other board members in the preparation, in and the other board members in the preparation and and they're, you know, using their experience to to drive a a great experience for our members, because that's who we're serving. We're serving our members. We want to make sure that they get the very most out of it and I'm excited to do that.
Lynne Madori:I it's it's kind of weird normally when I'm, you know, excited it's to see the, the venue or to to listen to the plenary speakers or whatever, because, again, we always have some amazing plenary speakers. But I think for me, honestly, it's to see the other side of it and to see it all come together with all the planning and see, watch, how our membership interact, and I'm super excited about that I think what really made me extra excited yesterday is we launched our event app, hoova.
Jacqueline McBride :We've used Hoova. We're actually one of their beta companies. It's a very large company. Today we launched it and within 10 minutes we had 130 people in the app already doing meetups, sharing their icebreakers, which asks you know what's their favorite movie?
Jacqueline McBride :or what animal would you be? What's your favorite country that you visited? So they're already engaged, they're already asking questions. They're asking questions to the speakers about their sessions and choosing which sessions they want to go to. I think also, what makes some ghost conferences different is that we pre-record all of the sessions that are not hands-on, specific sessions, so that when you choose from the six to seven options, you still get the information of the five others that you weren't able to see in person. Because, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that our community is getting as much training as humanly possible so that they can succeed in their careers and in their daily jobs.
Jerrod Jeffries:That's wonderful. And then there's database to go back to for all those members. And then college attendance as well.
Jacqueline McBride :Exactly, exactly, for the people that unfortunately are not able to attend for budgeting reasons or other reasons.
Jerrod Jeffries:Or be two places at once, as most of us need to be often.
Jacqueline McBride :Yeah, exactly, there's so much you can multitask, right.
Lynne Madori:I'm glad that Jacqueline mentioned Hoover again, because I remember that being another outstanding experience. You asked me earlier about you know some the things that um were most meaningful to me. Honestly, that the way that platform interacts people, I mean I was blown away. The first year I couldn't. I'm one of these people that hates those little notification boxes. Okay, you have to get over that. With whom? Because I would spend hours just reading all the new stuff that was going in and it can get overwhelming. But people arranging meetups, people arranging like polls to get involved in. And again, it only launched yesterday and when I checked it last night, oh, wow, ok, we're all super happy about this. Ok, we're all super happy about this. It's a phenomenal app and it's so easy to update and communicate with membership when they're there that I really think that helps too. I know, you know, sometimes things happen we have to change a room or something. Easily send out an announcement, so that's great.
Jacqueline McBride :You know I will say this Hooba is fantastic, but it really is based on the community, because I've used it in past positions that are not in simulation, not as engaged. You know they come in two days beforehand, we're two weeks out and the neat thing about that is that when you finally get to that conference, you feel like you already know people right. We're not walking in blind if you're brand new or if you haven't been before, because at the end of the day, we want you to feel comfortable. The more comfortable you feel, the more you're going to, to me, absorb the knowledge that someone is trying to explain to you. So I think that is very, very important.
Jacqueline McBride :You know, when we plan these events and we do have a lot of fun things that happen it is trying to. I think, if you use all the senses right sight, sound, smell, touch the more that you're engaged, the more that you will learn. You know, one of our biggest things is our opening networking event and we always try to have a really fun time and a unique experience. We're really excited about this year. It's something very, very different. We're going to be at the hangar and what they say is the community that hangs together stays together, and so we're going to be riding those party bikes over 133 at one time, get a 20 minute tour of Indianapolis and then land at the hangar where they have simulation games, food, drinks and just really good conversation. So really excited about that. It's really hard to outdo each year, but we're really excited about this one.
Deb Tauber:Excellent, excellent. Now is it sold out yet, or are there still opportunities to attend?
Jacqueline McBride :So we would have at this point, sold out. But thankfully the simulation center at IU Health is large. It's one of the most extensive besides IXL centers in the United States. When I visited there a couple of times, I've never seen so many simulations going on at the same time, so many groups coming. So we have that ability to add people, which I'm really excited about. And since we have six or seven sessions going on at the same time, there is room for everyone to get that training. So you know, so I think that will really work out in our favor. So, no, there's spots left, and even if there weren't, the more the merrier. We've gone over before and at the end of the day, we want people to be there to be able to get that education.
Deb Tauber:Great, great. Anything else you guys want to add today. Jerrod, anything else from you?
Jerrod Jeffries:No, this is great. Lynn, you kind of started off, but the SimGhost conferences are fantastic. I think they're very special in terms of what healthcare course simulation but what conferences can be and I think you know Jacqueline echoed it as well they're fun. They're just. It's a fun group and from all the different touch points of engagement allow people to be more connected and network and there's a lot of fringe benefits of attending and I know that we've felt that through prior years. Thank you.
Jacqueline McBride :We're looking forward to welcoming everyone in Indianapolis and we're really excited about 2025 as well. You know, at the end of the day, we don't charge a lot for a membership because it's really important again to make sure that we're sharing our knowledge and that membership also gives discounts to the conference, and so, at the end of the day, we really want people there and we want to be able to share ideas and come together. So if you have a chance to come join us, we would love to have you. The more the merrier.
Deb Tauber:Great, all right. Well, thank you so much for being on today. We appreciate this and happy simulating.
Disclaimer/ Innovative Sim Solutions/ Intro:Thanks to Innovative Sim Solutions for sponsoring this week's podcast. Innovative Sim Solutions will make your plans for your next Sim Center a reality. Contact Deb Tauber and her team today. Thanks for joining us here at the Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www. innovativesimsolutions. com. i and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Innovative Sim Solutions is your one-stop shop for your simulation needs. A turnkey solution.
