From Philosophy Degree to Simulation Leadership: Matt Needler's Journey

Matt Needler shares his journey from combat medic and philosophy major to becoming Director of Operations at Belmont University's 60,000-square-foot simulation center, where he oversees high-fidelity simulation experiences across healthcare disciplines.

• Started in simulation by chance after seeing a job opening while working in physical therapy
• Advanced from technician to coordinator to director roles across multiple institutions
• Holds dual CHSOS and CHSE certifications, making him among the first 100 people worldwide with both
• Creates innovative simulation experiences including a mannequin that simulates upper GI bleeds with pumping blood
• Currently developing AI applications for simulation, including a system for nursing students to practice SOAP notes
• Presenting at IMSH on learning theories for simulationists and AI integration in healthcare simulation
• Emphasizes career advancement possibilities for simulation technicians
• Attributes success to willingness to ask questions and apply for opportunities
• Can be reached on LinkedIn or at matthew.needler@belmont.edu

Join Matt at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in San Antonio, where he'll be presenting on learning theories and AI applications in simulation.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 1:40 Matt's Journey into Simulation
• 5:40 Leadership at Belmont University
• 10:37 Simulation's Real-World Impact
• 18:00 Future of AI in Simulation
• 22:58 Closing Thoughts and IMSH Preview

Transcript

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 0:00

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. Thanks to Innovative Sim Solutions for sponsoring this week's episode. Are you a healthcare professional or educator looking to level up your training methods? Then you need to check out the Basics of Healthcare Simulation, a dynamic foundational course designed to introduce you to the powerful world of simulation-based learning, from mannequins to virtual reality. This class breaks down the tools, techniques and strategies that bring clinical education to life safely, effectively and realistically. Whether you're brand new to simulation or just want a refresher course, this will give you the confidence and skills to create engaging, high-impact learning experiences.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 0:51

Ready to revolutionize how to teach and train, reach out to Deb Tauber at Innovative Sim Solutions to set up your training 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. 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: 1:40

Welcome to another episode of the Sim Cafe. And today we're here with Matthew Needler who likes to be called Matt who's the Director of Operations at the Center for Interprofessional Engagement and Simulation at Belmont University, where he oversees daily operations, leads a team of technicians and collaborates with faculty to design high-fidelity simulation experiences for healthcare students and professionals. His background includes serving as a combat medic in the Army National Guard and he's had hands-on roles in healthcare and nearly a decade of advancing in medical simulation. He holds dual certifications for the CHSOS and the CHSE from the Society for Simulation and Healthcare, and he has a master's in adult education. Outside of work, he's a proud father of three and husband and passionate about music, tattoos and family. So thank you, Matt.

Matt Needler: 2:39

Thank you, yeah, thank you, thanks for having me on. I'm really excited to talk to you guys. And yeah, kind of on to a little bit of my journey. I will make one side thing as we get going. I'm almost got my. I am in my very last semester of my master's in education. I'm in my capstone right now, just wrapping it up, so I don't see anything major issues happening.

Jerrod Jeffries: 3:00

But come December this this December I will officially have the MSEB. I'm really excited for that. Oh great, yeah, well, cheering you on from the sidelines here, Matt M, but, but, but, I want to. I want to hear more about your journey into simulation. I mean, you've been before we, before we started recording. We we're talking a little bit, but I want to hear you popped around a few places, so so give us some more detail.

Matt Needler: 3:20

Um, I kind of have a weird kind of background getting into simulation. I joined the military as a medic and so I had this medical background and I was like what am I going to do with this? And I kind of started going to college and I was working in physical therapy and wound care and I also used to clean carpets at night, and so I would go to class all day, go to clean carpets at night and then the next day come in and do physical therapy all day, and then that was just my life for several years. And so I got done with my degree. I actually got my degree in philosophy, of all things, and which always cracks me up, the just the people that get into sim. It's can be nurses, it can be everything, but it can also just be like actors or people like me with random philosophy degrees. And so I kind of just stumbled into simulation on accident. I saw it was there was an opening at the simulation center at Fairbanks and I was like this looks cool, because I used to do simulation in the military. Granted, I was the learner and on the other side with the mannequins, but I always thought it was kind of cool and I saw an opening. I was like I'm just gonna apply. You know what's the worst that can happen? And I ended up. It was really awesome experiences going in there and touring and ended up getting the job.

Matt Needler: 4:24

And then I just kind of fell in love with it and I kind of started dedicating everything I did to learning more and I got my CHSOS, and then I got my CHSE, and then I started presenting at conferences and like I just I've heard it. Once you know you get by the bug of simulation and then you just realize this is an awesome job. How have I never heard of this Like? And then you just realize this is an awesome job. How have I never heard of this Like? I think it's like Shablack. David Shablack always says it's like the coolest job nobody's heard of.

Matt Needler: 4:49

And that really was how this kind of was for me. I didn't plan on it or mean to, but now that I'm here I love it and I can't picture doing anything else now. Like I get to work with fake blood and do one thing one day, then something else the next day, and that's really what drove me in when I was doing physical therapy. It was kind of the same thing every single day, not always, but a little bit of that mindset. Whereas in simulation like one day you're working with peds, the next day you're doing emergency medicine, the next day you're helping with OB-SIMs and you're going into the hospital or nope, this time we're designing a fake. You know disaster with like moulage and you know it's like. It's just always different and I that really for me as my mental state, like I really need that.

Matt Needler: 5:27

I need the new stuff and the new adventures for itself. That's kind of how I got into simulation. There wasn't a direct path, but once I got in, it kind of just was full steam ahead and really came my life and how are you liking the new center from your move?

Matt Needler: 5:40

I really like it. It's, it's a, it's a bigger center. So Fairbanks was a pretty large center and then Bloomington was a little bit smaller. My last Sim Center they were both the IU IU Health kind of combination centers, but Bloomington was about 12,000 square feet and we had a small strong team, but a small team. There was the director myself, and then we had one other full-time person and so now I came here and it's 60,000 square feet.

Matt Needler: 6:05

We serve every discipline under the sun in healthcare here at Belmont we have a very large team of dedicated staff and working with this. So that's been the biggest changes is not having to. I know a lot of centers have like one man hats. Where they have to, they're the educator, they're the tech, they're the. You know they do all those things and I kind of went from a place where I had more than one role under my hat and now I'm coming here and we have dedicated people and it's just it's really exciting to have actual educators, which we had at Bloomington, but we have dedicated education staff, we have dedicated IT people, we have a dedicated person that just works on inventory and supplies and it's just like.

Matt Needler: 6:41

This is amazing. It really is just like how cool can a Simpsons be? And I really stumbled into it and got lucky coming here.

Jerrod Jeffries: 6:48

And just to recap, then you went from Indianapolis at Fairbanks, then you went down to Bloomington, indiana, for Indiana University of Bloomington and they're trifecta.

Matt Needler: 6:57

They serve the School of Medicine the School of Nursing and IU Health. And then I moved down to Bloomington as they opened up their new Sim Center because they had all those same entities, had smaller little one-room centers and then they built this beautiful new center that was attached to the hospital and I sort of came on right as they were opening that and got lucky and really liked it. I started out as a tech up in Indy and then when I moved to Bloomington I transitioned into a coordinator role and then down here I've transitioned into director of operations. So really a tech level up, kind of working my way up the chain of simulation that's great.

Deb Tauber: 7:39

Great, and I know that the center has been accredited by the Society for Simulation and Healthcare, so you have a lot of history with the society and you're one of the first 100 people worldwide to have both the CHSOS and the CHSE certification. And how do you think this has influenced your practice and which test was harder?

Matt Needler: 8:03

I think the CHSOS was harder because I wasn't used to that style of testing. The first time I took the CHSOS I did not pass. I just wasn't used to that style of testing and it was interesting. And then I got more education with my old manager up at Fairbanks. We really sat down and went through things more constructively and so I knew like, oh, this is. I kind of went in and I just took it in a different way and I had not done that. And so then, kind of knowing how the tests work and how to kind of answer where they give you one that's kind of right, one that's really right, and so it was just they're not trying to trick you, they're just really trying to push your knowledge and make sure you kind of understand what you're doing. But I just wasn't used to that the first time. So for me the CHSOS was harder. The CHSE was a continuation because I was in grad school for education, so it was really hitting home on all the things I was talking about or learning about in school and so it was almost like I was getting double loaded and so for me it was a little bit easier. But it's really influenced my practice in that now I kind of understand the whole.

Matt Needler: 9:02

I think when you just do one or I wish I could push on text, if anything one of the big ones is you got to get both.

Matt Needler: 9:07

You have to understand the tech side. But if you just know the tech and you're not getting all the reasoning behind why we're doing the certain, you know we're doing a task and you're trying to get mastery and you're doing a behavior. So behavior is three kind of coming into that. If you don't get any of that, it's kind of hard to get the full picture of what simulation is. So for me they're two sides of the same coin and you really need both. And so for me it's been huge and just helping me understand the whole picture of what we're doing here in simulation and talking to the language. It really helps too, like, especially if you're on a team where you're kind of doing both ops and education. It really helps when you go, sit down with the faculty and you start designing the SAMs, to really understand oh, this is the whole process, this is why we're doing this and not missing any of those pieces. So for me I think it's been a holistic kind of journey that's made me see the both sides of it.

Deb Tauber: 9:54

Very good.

Jerrod Jeffries: 9:55

But so, just going on that though, I do want to tap more into back what you're doing now as the director of operations at Belmont. Tap more into back what you're doing now as the director of operations at Belmont. Yeah, so, when it comes to kind of how large your center is and and all the different, I mean, I would say you wear a lot of hats as well, but how how

Matt Needler: 10:14

do

Jerrod Jeffries: 10:14

how do you balance all this with everything?

Matt Needler: 10:17

I think I I'm very lucky here. I have a very strong team working with me. So we, when I got down here, we kind of did a little bit of reshuffling and so now we have a manager who kind of oversees the Hi-Fi sort of section, and then we have a manager who kind of oversees the SBE, osce side, and then we have a manager in the middle that he floats and helps with supply and inventory and all those things. So my role is kind of overseeing everything operations, operations, the running of HiFi Sims, the day-to-day interactions of ordering supplies and testing mannequins and training these guys and getting them off to trainings and some of those things. So I think really how I balance it is by having such a strong team, like these guys are the best of the best and it really I got lucky to come into this business and work with these guys.

Matt Needler: 11:01

But also I always have to give a shout out to my wife. I couldn't do it without her. She really helps with, you know, when I have to stay late for a training or, you know, helping develop something. She's been really helpful and just moved down to Nashville with me and so I will give a shout out to the team, but also my home life. My wife helps me get through these things, yeah certainly.

Deb Tauber: 11:20

Yeah, very nice. Now you went from Indiana to Tennessee. And how's that been? How do you like it? And what's interesting is, both of you have been in Indiana and Tennessee.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 11:32

Yeah we were just talking about that.

Matt Needler: 11:34

Yeah, right before that, actually, you're from Bloomington or you went to school there, right? I went to school, yeah, bloomington. So I got my undergrad from actually Indianapolis and then my grad degree was from Bloomington and then I worked there. But, yeah, it's been really awesome. Nashville is a lot of fun. I'm a big brewery guy, I love breweries, and so there's no limit to things to eat and drink down here. It's a lot of fun and it was close to home too. And we were kind of talking about this before.

Matt Needler: 12:02

When you look at simulations, sometimes you have to kind of especially as you move up, you know, you might go from tech to manager to director. As you start going up those things, sometimes you have to travel to where there's an open position. You know, my last job there, my director wasn't going anywhere. You know, dave was awesome, you know, but he had a long while to go. So I knew I was like, well, where am I, where am I thinking, when am I going to go?

Matt Needler: 12:24

And some of them were Florida or you know, like I was looking all over the country really, and even some, you know, across the sea, and then I saw Nashville. I was like this is only four hours away. I have to apply. This is too good, and so it's still close to home and I can go back home and still see family for Thanksgiving and it feels far away sometimes, but then other times it really doesn't. But Nashville has been a lot of fun. The people down here have been really welcoming, the scene here is really fun for music and I'm really into music and country music especially, so that's been a lot of fun getting to come down here and see some of that. So, yeah, I couldn't be happier. The big highlight of the first few weeks I was here was the 4th of July. Nashville's fireworks were insane and we watched it from the fifth floor of the Belmont med school building and so you could just look out and see the entire Nashville skyline. And it was. It was very awesome.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 13:12

So yeah it's been great yeah.

Matt Needler: 13:13

And a lot of fun, well, I guess, yeah, you're from Nashville, you know how crazy they get down here for their their fireworks. I wasn't expecting it and I was just like, oh my goodness, this is. This is wild, bigger, one of the biggest ones I've ever been to um for fireworks displays yeah, that's great, and I mean belmont's lucky to have you, matt I.

Jerrod Jeffries: 13:29

I think that seeing what you've, you know, done and how much you've learned and able to kind of leave an impression on your, your previous institutions and you do have you do have a lot to chew now. I mean, this is belmont's, a big, beautiful center yeah it.

Matt Needler: 13:42

When I came down here for the tour, when I was interviewing and I just kept walking around and be like, oh my goodness, and like we saw our like the front of the building just to even before you even got into the center, I was like this looks like a Coliseum, like this. It was just so pretty the architecture down here and the school is a really good school. They care about their employees and there good benefits, so it was just like the perfect. It could not be happier and found a better spot to go.

Deb Tauber: 14:04

Yeah, I had the pleasure of going down for SimGhosts.

Matt Needler: 14:16

Yeah, well, that was fun too. I got brought on so I was the co-chair for SSA or for SimOps this last year and so I've been working all year with the planning team and be on the planning committee for that. And then I got down here and in this new role, I got put onto the planning committee for sim ghost and so I literally like, was doing both and then I went and was gone for a week for sim ops and then I came back and it was less than a week later with sim ghost and so it was just back to back. It was. It was really, although lucky for me, I really got to see the behind the scenes of both of these big simulation tech conferences and just getting to see how they both do stuff. It was just so incredibly lucky Not very many people can say they can be on the planning committee for both of these giant simulation technician conferences.

Deb Tauber: 14:56

You're a pretty humble guy, though I don't like to brag, it's one of those things I still feel just incredibly lucky to have stumbled.

Matt Needler: 15:03

I was just a philosophy major, what was? I don't like to brag. It's one of those things I still feel just incredibly lucky to have stumbled Like. I was just a philosophy major, Like w hat was

Jerrod Jeffries: 15:08

was I going to do?

Matt Needler: 15:08

There's not a lot of philosophy factories around, so I was like what am I even going to do with this? And then I stumbled into this and just fell in love and then just got incredibly lucky over and over again and got just the best mentors you can have. And then moving, moving different places and getting directors that are really supportive and want to see you grow, is just it's, it's the key to the job and I just I don't think too much about myself, was anything special to do these things, but it really was the lucky opportunities I got and to really push myself.

Jerrod Jeffries: 15:35

um, I think it was the luck of the game, but yeah, going through all these different chapters in simulation, for lack of a better word, what's your favorite or most impactful simulation story?

Matt Needler: 15:46

I think, the biggest impactful one. I think that still sticks with me to this day and really like hit home why we do what we do. It was working at Fairbanks and we were doing a residency sim and what the team had designed was this simulation mannequin that could fill his for like an upper GI bleed and his throat would fill with blood. So they there was a couple of iterations they had worked through, but the final one was this fish tank, I mean a big bucket they put a fish pump into and they would fill it with blood well, simulated blood, obviously and then there was a wireless start-stop button so we could sit in the control station, hit the start button and it would just start pumping blood into this mannequin's throat. And so it was an older mannequin and again, you always save your old mannequins because you never know what you could build with them. But we basically rigged it up to go into his chest and then up inside of him to his throat, and it would just fill with blood. And so we were running a residency sim where they had to come in and intubate while trying to also suction, and it was just a crazy cool sim, one of those sims you dream, dream about, you know the fun ones where it's just like tons of blood and they're working through it. But anyway, um, it was about two weeks later. One of those residents came back and said I, this was a rare one of those rare high stakes simulations that you know we always talk about. But he came back in a couple weeks later. He was like this happened.

Matt Needler: 16:57

I was at work and this came in and I knew what to do because of this simulation we did, and I was just like like this is why we do this, like these guys the chance to practice on things that they, you know, we don't want to see in real. Obviously you don't want to see, you know, like I think of like OB rotations and things like that, where you know we all want to see happy, healthy, delivered babies. But you know, sometimes you're going to run into an abruption in our shoulder, to an abruption in our shoulder, stosha, and the beauty of SAM is we can say we're going to get you some hands-on practice with this so that you can help when the time actually arises. So it just really blew my mind when that happened and it was one of those moments that have always stuck with me Like. This is why we do what we do. We give them the practice, we help them so that when they go out and are with real patients, they're so much better off for it.

Matt Needler: 17:39

So that was, that was my big one. I think that'll always stick with me. I was just like oh my gosh.

Deb Tauber: 17:43

Yeah, yeah. Now do you have any final words that you'd like to leave our listeners with?

Matt Needler: 18:17

no-transcript Like what's what's? The worst that can happen is they say no and you move on. You know you miss all those opportunities. It reminds me of.

Matt Needler: 18:35

I'm sure you guys have seen that meme from the office where it's like you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take Wayne Gretzky, and then underneath it's like Michael Scott. So I'm going to do another, underlined Matt Needler. But yeah, it's one of those. It truly is one of those things that just just ask, just try, and you know, the worst case is they say no and you move on and you'll try something else. But you'll never get the opportunities to do some of these things unless you start asking for them.

Matt Needler: 18:58

And so that's kind of what my biggest takeaway is how I've progressed in my career and gone from thing to you know spot and new opportunities was just simply asking or applying and saying I'm going to go for it. What's when? I, when I saw this position open up, I was, you know, a little hesitant to apply and I was like I don't know, like, am I far enough along in my career? Am I, you know, do I have the right things and the right degree? You know all these things, you know that go through your head when you see these things. But I was like, well, I'm just, I'm going to go for it.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 19:21

You know what's the worst that happened?

Matt Needler: 19:22

They'll say no. And then I got this interview, and then I got the second interview, and then the third. You what's the worst that can happen? They'll say no. So if I can part anything to anybody, it's that it's go for it, just ask.

Deb Tauber: 19:38

And Matt, if our listeners wanted to get a hold of you, where could they do that?

Matt Needler: 19:42

On LinkedIn. Matthew Needler on LinkedIn is a really big one. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn I try to be anyway. And sure, I found this community is we do these things. I wish we could show somebody these cool task centers you build. Or oh, I'm trying this new process with AI. How can I share that with people? And then I found really a growing community on LinkedIn where people are posting like hey, I did this thing. It's kind of cool. It's like, yes, that is pretty cool. I want to see that. So I think LinkedIn is the big one. But also they could reach out to me at matthewneedler@ belmont. edu or yeah, those are probably the two easiest ones is by email or connecting with me on LinkedIn. A lot of people I'm connected with and I meet at these conferences. They're like oh, we follow each other.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 20:20

I'm like oh, I think I do.

Matt Needler: 20:21

I follow. When I started getting into this and realizing people around LinkedIn doing stuff, I just I typed in like simulationist and anybody that had that job. I just started adding people just trying to be like I want to follow people doing so. It's kind of funny. People doing so it's kind of funny. People will be like oh, I know you from there. I'm like oh, yeah, yeah, and they'll talk to me. But they always joke. They're like I recognize your beard. My little profile picture always has my beard. So I always say also, I go to a lot of conferences. I try to go to IMSH every year. So if you see me, please stop talk to me. Say hi, I love talking shop, always down to talk, simulation you to just look for the giant beard and tattoos. I got to be where they find me. Thank you, and I'll be at IMSH this year. I did find out a couple of my presentations got accepted, so I'm really excited to go this year in San.

Matt Needler: 21:04

Antonio and looking forward to that. So that'll be the next big conference I go to. So if anybody also just wants to wait, tap on my shoulder there and start talking. I'm more than welcome to chat there.

Deb Tauber: 21:15

What are you going to present?

Matt Needler: 21:16

So I'm doing a hot topic on learning theories for the simulationist. Oh good, talking about how the tech level learning, all these learning theories are. It's one of my biggest passions is really getting techs to realize they're an integral part of the education, and how we do this and knowing the theories behind some of the things will give them a more complete picture of what's going on and help them one, you know, understand the simulation, what we're doing, but also advance in their career and try to move up ladders, because there's multiple avenues to move up in simulation. It's not and I I like to push that like, remember, like as techs, you can make a career out of being a tech. You know, this is a field where you can grow within this and really push yourself and rise up.

Matt Needler: 21:57

You know, be a manager. Then, you know, and it can start out as a tech A lot of. I think our new SSH president, he started out as a tech, like it's just kind of nuts, you know, because sometimes you see these big centers and they're run by doctor, you know, and all good and good things like that. But there is a path for techs to move up and do these things strictly from a tech background. So a little bit of a thing I always try to push out to some of these new techs coming in and to the field is that this can be a career. You can really make a lot out of it if you want.

Deb Tauber: 22:26

Right, no, that's good. That's one I'm presenting on.

Matt Needler: 22:29

The other one is on AI and how to integrate it into your simulations that are from inventory to simulated patients and all kinds of. We're helping it. We're piloting right now here at Belmont we're trying to make a system for nurses so they can practice soap notes and so they would get a situation and give a soap note and then it would give immediate feedback on how they, what they did well, what they can improve on. It could be a thing they take with them, just an app on their phone. So we're doing some really fun stuff with AI and simulation.

Matt Needler: 22:57

And so my hot topic, one that I'm just presenting by myself, is on learning theories for the simulationists, and then the AI one is with my director, daniel, and then my old director, david, from IU. So it was kind of fun that we all we kind of collaborated my director here and my director from my home center in IU. We're all kind of coming together and presenting on, because he's he's doing a lot of really strong work in ai at iu too. So we kind of all came together. We're like, hey, we're all kind of talking about this, let's just do a discussion and panel together and then do a little workshop on how to build these gbts and so yeah, that'll be an interesting topic, yeah so I think there's going to be a lot of really good.

Jerrod Jeffries: 23:34

From the sounds of it, there's gonna be a lot of really good stuff at IMSH this year and I love that too matt, because I mean, I I feel like every nurse tech simulationist instructor is, so I'm poor and I think AI can, at least you know, alleviate some of that stress in terms of giving it back.

Matt Needler: 23:51

And so I'm gonna sit in on that as well, because I think there's a lot of cool stuff and a lot of things that can make our lives easier and streamlined, and just especially, like you said, you know some, especially for places that one person wearing multiple hats yeah, be a resource to streamline things. It can cut costs on things too. It's just a lot of really fun stuff that's going on with it, so I think there's going to be some good discussion to be had.

Deb Tauber: 24:15

Yeah, great. Well, thank you so much and we will Thank you for having me. We really appreciate your time and all your contributions and look forward to seeing you at IMSH.

Matt Needler: 24:25

Yeah, really excited to see you guys there.

Deb Tauber: 24:26

Thank you. Thanks, Matt.

Disclaimer/ Innovation Sim Solutions/ Intro: 24:28

Bye, happy simulating. Thanks again to Innovative Sim Solutions for sponsoring this week's episode. Ready to revolutionize how you teach and train? Then check out the basics of healthcare simulations with Innovative Sim Solutions and Deb Tauber today. Thanks for joining us here The Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www. innovativesimsolutions. com 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.