Finding Your Healthcare Niche: Katie Cushman's Journey in Simulation Technology

Katie Cushman, Simulation Operations Specialist at Atrium Health, shares her journey from nursing student to healthcare simulation professional and how finding her niche in simulation technology combines her passions for healthcare, education, and technology.

• Transitioned from nursing school to pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Healthcare Simulation after realizing bedside nursing wasn't the right fit
• Gained first meaningful exposure to simulation technology at a human-patient simulation day, seeing mannequins in action
• Completed specialized education covering simulation foundations, education principles, operations, research and administration
• Enjoys the technical aspects of working with simulation mannequins and problem-solving when technology challenges arise
• Creates realistic simulations including organ procurement scenarios with Life Share and injury simulations for military training
• Develops pipeline programs introducing middle and high school students to healthcare simulation as a career option
• Recently earned CHSOS certification and aspires to eventually become a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator and SSH Fellow
• Values mentorship and connections within the simulation community

Contact Katie Cushman at Kathryn.Cushman@advocatehealth.org or find her on LinkedIn to learn more about careers in healthcare simulation.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message
• 1:40 Katie's Journey from Nursing to Simulation
• 3:14 First Experience with Healthcare Simulation
• 5:38 Finding Purpose in Simulation Technology
• 10:10 Bachelor's Degree in Healthcare Simulation
• 17:28 Favorite Simulation Projects
• 22:18 Future Goals and Podcast Origins
• 26:44 Closing and Contact Information

Transcript

Disclaimer/ Innovative 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 to refresher course, this will give you the confidence and skills to create engaging, high-impact learning experiences. 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 and 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, and 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 are very fortunate to have Katie Kushman. Katie is from Atrium Health, which is part of Advocate Health in North Carolina. Katie, why don't you tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself? And thank you so much for being a guest.

Katie Kushman: 1:58

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. So hi everyone, my name is Katie. I'm a simulation operations specialist. I actually was fortunate enough to get my Bachelor's Science in healthcare simulation and a new program as a part of Atrium Health Carolina College of Health Sciences. So it was a four-year degree. I actually started as a nursing student before that degree, though, directly out of high school and made it about a year, year and a half. And in clinicals, I just kind of realized that the bedside nursing wasn't quite the right spot for me. And so I left nursing school, but still wanted to do something with healthcare and possibly with tech. And so the program had popped up and I kind of took a leap of faith with that and kind of fell in love with simulation over the course of going through that program. And so now I've been here in simulation for a total of four years, I guess if you count my schooling, but officially two years. And then I just passed my CHSOS certification this past January.

Deb Tauber: 3:05

Congratulations on passing that. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you. So what was your first experience with simulation in healthcare?

Katie Kushman: 3:14

So probably my first experience, uh, once I had, you know, gotten the acceptance to the program, which was kind of a leap of faith, I did like a quick Google search just to try and figure out what the healthcare simulation industry was. But the first parts of the course were like the foundations of simulation. So we did a lot of reviewing of education parts and then the operation side as well as administration and research. But it was a lot of still like reading through the textbooks, and I had didn't have that in-person connection with Sim yet. And so we had been talking with Crystal Bank and who was my instructor, and there was a human-patient simulation day with CAE up at Elon University. And so I thought that was a good jumping point for me to kind of go see these mannequins that I had been reading about in my textbook and kind of like the functionality in that regard. And so I got to go to that event and we got to sit through a couple of talks about simulation and best practices and working with the curriculum design process and getting to talk to some of the people from CAE about instruction and building and how the mannequins function, getting to see different types of mannequins. I got to see their birthing mannequin, I got to see their adult mannequin, some of their pediatric mannequins, detached trainers. So I really got to put my hands on what I had been talking and learning about for the past several months. And so that really kind of just grabbed me. Like that was where I was kind of like, okay, this is something that I can really get behind and see myself doing and understanding maybe how to fix the mannequin, maybe how to, you know, get to run the scenarios. And so I I kind of found that niche of the technology interest that I had, as well as still allowing it to be in touch with healthcare. So I thought that was a really awesome jumping point for me to really dive in further.

Deb Tauber: 5:11

Great. Now so you're in nursing school and you decide you don't want to be in nursing anymore.

Katie Kushman: 5:19

Yeah.

Deb Tauber: 5:19

Did you regret that decision at all? Do you do you regret it at this time, man?

Katie Kushman: 5:23

At this point in time, I don't. It was definitely something I battled with initially just because that's what I had told myself I wanted to do since I was like an early teen. I always enjoyed working with kids and babies and things like that. And so I thought I wanted to be a NICU nurse or possibly a labor and delivery nurse. And so that's where I spent a lot of my time focusing with my coursework. I took any human body system class or anatomy class. But when I got into clinicals, I just had some not so great involuntary reactions to stuff I was seeing in the clinical field that kind of was a very strong telltale sign that that wasn't for me. And so I think it was, it hurt my pride a little bit, just right. Like I had told everybody, you know, I'm going to go be a nurse and I'm going to do this. And so that's definitely something that I had to work through on my own. But I will say, being in SIM now for several years, getting to watch more of the behind the scenes of healthcare almost, I really find that super interesting to see the learners progress. Like right when we start with our baby nursing students to when they're senior nursing students or our first-year med students to our fourth-year med students, or even them coming out of medical school in their first years of residency until they're leaving, and getting to see their confidence grow and the progress of the learners really just feeds my soul. And I, you know, I love getting to see that and we get to hear amazing stories from them about how simulation made a difference in their life. And so I've really found a purpose within simulation that really just touches on everything that I have values for with learning and education and technology and healthcare. It's like the perfect job that holds all the pieces. And so now I don't have that regret. And I love working with our nurse educators and I think they're all amazing people, but I've found that this is this is where I was meant to be. Like I feel like this is a special place, and I'm happy.

Deb Tauber: 7:23

Good. Good. That's that's important. That's really important. Was there a specific moment when you were you saw a simulator and something just glitched? This is this is absolutely where I gotta be.

Katie Kushman: 7:35

Yeah. Well, so I always liked tinkering with devices and and technology kind of growing up. I would like take computers apart and build things, and I liked all the cables and the wires and connections and those kinds of things. Actually, truly, like getting to see the mannequins in action was cool, a little creepy, if I be if I'm being completely honest at first, right? You I had because the only mannequin I had ever seen was a low fidelity skills checkoff kind of mannequin and not one that had all the functionality of the breathing and the blinking and the pulses and all of that. So seeing that for the first time I was kind of like, whoa, what is this? But honestly, when we get to you know, crack the mannequin open, like if we're doing some kind of repair or really kind of messing like with doing the repairs in the hands-on, or hey, I need to fix this, kind of like that critical thinking. I just that is something that I really align with and the problem solving, right? Because technology is a blessing and a curse, right? When it's working great, it's amazing. And when it's not working, you're really like, okay, is it just uh unplug it and plug it back in, or do I really need to like think deeper about like what's going on or working with our team to come up with a workaround of this is what we need for the learners, what can we do to get this? So honestly, I think just getting to see the mannequins and getting to see how the technology works and just seeing, like, kind of like I said earlier, like in apply my healthcare interest and I can apply my technology interest together. And we get to kind of have fun and create and build the scenarios and set the room to a setting that we may need it. And I still get to learn about healthcare things and equipment and things like that. And so I really get to work with that. And I think that's what really fills me too is you know, I love working with our nursing students and our medical students, but I also get to do some additional work with Sanger Heart and Vascular. So we're doing some more intense cardiac cases, or I've done some work with Life Share, which is organ procurement. So, how did we set that up to become as realistic as possible? And like working with some of our simulated participants as family members so that we can help those learners have those difficult conversations and getting to work with a really amazing team to get to bring those to life. So yeah, that's just it. I love coming to work every day. We get to really bring healthcare to life in a in a safe and secure setting. So yeah.

Deb Tauber: 10:02

Now tell me a little bit about your preparation. How'd you find out about, oh, there's actually a you can go to school for this. And then what were the the courses and what's the degree? Tell me about the whole program and once again how you how you found out about it.

Katie Kushman: 10:15

Yeah, yeah, of course. When I was kind of in a, I guess a lull we'll call it between nursing school and this program. I was just kind of taking some courses at the community college just to kind of stay in that mindset of school. And they actually did a new segment on the new program, just on one of our local news channels. And so I ended up calling the school and seeing if they could tell me kind of any more information. Now, I was the very first bachelor's student to go through the program. And so they kind of like to say, you know, we were building the plane while we were flying it. So I got to be a little bit of a guinea pig, which at first was like a little nerve-wracking, right? Because I didn't know what to expect fully. But once we got into it, that was really not a concern at all. I really enjoyed it because they got to ask me, like, well, what do you think about this? Or, hey, you read through this chapter, what really piqued your interest? What do we want to dive in more? And everybody was super welcoming. We did a um a post-back certificate or a bachelor's degree. And so I was the bachelor's student, and then I had four or five other classmates that were post-back certificate. I will say, when I got on that call for the first time to kind of meet your classmates, I was the youngest one on the call, probably by about 20 years of age. So I was a little intimidated at first, but it ended up working out phenomenally, actually, because I got to talk to my peers in the degree for kind of their wisdom and coming from the healthcare industry or wherever they're working. And so we kind of met each other halfway because I brought the, oh, I have some more technology stuff that I understand. So I can help you work through this if you can kind of help me figure out what we're talking about in this situation. And so I was very grateful to have them. And I kind of found my voice as they all cheered me on and were like, yeah, you know the answer to this, or they can see the passion that I have for a certain course or something like that. And so everybody was extremely supportive in that regard. And so, yeah, so I got into the program and we all did a foundation's semester of simulation again, talking about all the different aspects. And then we dove into our education course, which I thought was very interesting, what all our educators go through, right? To be able to build these programs and cases and working with the simulation educator and then working with our subject matter expert in whatever group that we're working with and how they do their curriculum design and talking about objectives. And we learned about the Kearns model and then Kirkpatrick and how they're using those to identify gaps in knowledge and what it is that our learners truly need. And so, because our simulation educators are the expert in simulation, and then our subject matter experts are the expert of what's going on in the clinical field, we get to merge that information and then as an operations specialist, getting to work with them to help bring that scenario to life. And so talking through that whole design process and what that looks like, and then establishing the psychological safety with the learners and going through that pre-brief and what does that look like? So we spent about 45 hours for that semester in that course where we pretty much just shadowed and followed around with the educators through this entire process, which I was fascinated by just because I think the education side of it is very interesting and how they get to pull all these different parts and pieces together to build this for the learners and then getting to collaborate with them to then build the scenario and the programming and the vitals and all of those things. So that was the first class that I went through. And then we talked a little bit about the debriefing process as well, like plus Delta and all the different debriefing avenues. And then after the education course, we jumped into our operations specialist course. And that's where I really just I hit the ground running with that one. I was so excited to just dive in and see like what they really got to do because we were, I was able to, because the college was through HRM Health and then our simulation center right is attached to HRM Health. I was able to shadow a lot of our operations specialists and get to see what they did. And they were all phenomenal and really welcomed me with an open arm. And I was the kid that asked a thousand questions. I was like, what does this do? How do you do that? What do we do in this situation? Can I observe you for this? And so I would just follow around like a little puppy, right? Like all day, every day. And I was just fascinated by all of it and all of the different things that we could do. And it's 7:45 in the morning and this isn't working. What are we gonna do to fix this problem? Okay, option A didn't work. Okay, cool. Well, let's go ask this other operation specialist because maybe they've had the situation before. So, really just that like fast-paced critical thinking environment I really enjoyed. And then kind of getting to be creative to build the moulage and the scene for a scenario, and then just getting to program the different scenarios, the course progression of is this patient gonna get better? Is this patient gonna get worse? What does that look like? And then getting to observe the learners and again more of that collaboration with our educators. And then I got to learn moulage that we do. So we get to be creative and they let us build a lot of stuff in-house, which is super awesome. And so I was learning how to make like chest skins and suture pads and IV pads that we all get to make in-house. And we get to do some occasional work with the military. And so I get to really get creative with that, right? Because they have some pretty intense injuries. That was a whole nother gate that I didn't know existed too, it was just that entire creative side of things of really getting to create all the different wounds and models. And how do I make this fake bleed? And how do I have to cut artery? How can we represent that when and those kinds of things or some burns on a patient? So I get to test out and figure out how these different elements can go and become a part of the a scenario. And so I truly, truly love that side of it and getting to experiment and build. And so that's just another amazing part of the ops side. And then finally, we did our courses on research and assessment as well as administration. So how are we tracking research within simulation to help aid with learners and those kinds of things? And then the administration is how do you how do you run a sim center, right? Mannequins aren't cheap. And depending on what kind of sim center you're running, you might have a really big budget or you might not have much of a budget at all. And so looking at all of those different viewpoints of what can you create on a budget? How can you use what you have? And so they gave us some pretty interesting questions to be like, okay, here's your budget. You need to do X, Y, and Z as your objectives. How would you go about building that? How do you manage your budget? How do you have a team? Like what kind of people would you have on your team based off all of the different jobs within simulation? And so I really, really like to do that. I would say I'm kind of business minded too. So kind of just getting to figure out all of those parts and pieces to build that puzzle, I thought was very, very cool. So we got, yeah, a very, very full overview of of simulation in in the industry. And so I was very excited to go through that.

Deb Tauber: 17:46

Katie, how many people were in your cohort?

Katie Kushman: 17:49

In my initial cohort, there were I believe there were five of us.

Deb Tauber: 17:53

Okay. And did you guys was it majority online or was it?

Katie Kushman: 17:58

Yes. Okay. So the simulation courses, we had like a weekly meeting online, and then we're also in person. So those courses I did get to come in person for, but the rest of my general education kind of based courses were all online and asynchronous.

Deb Tauber: 18:13

And how long did the whole program take?

Katie Kushman: 18:15

With the credit uh credits I was able to transfer from nursing school, it was three years.

Deb Tauber: 18:22

Oh wow. Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, there you go. And in what cohort were you in as far as like how many? Because I know it's a new program.

Katie Kushman: 18:30

I was the very first cohort.

Deb Tauber: 18:31

Okay. So you were in the first cohort, and what are they up to now?

Katie Kushman: 18:35

So a couple of them, I think, used it more as kind of just like a stepping stone with their career with the certificate, because at the time I was the only bachelor's student. So one of them, I know he works as like a dean at a community college. Another one is nursing faculty, and then another one is a pharmacist. I think she was trying to maybe integrate simulation into the pharmacy training somewhat. And then another one is a consultant, but she was working to bring simulation into trainings for their equipment.

Deb Tauber: 19:10

All right. Yeah. Now, do you have a favorite simulation story? Favorite simulation story.

Katie Kushman: 19:16

I would say I have kind of two, I guess, if you will. So one of mine is just getting to do some of those life share and military builds, just finding that passion for those and really getting to set this stone. More so I think life share, just because we got to bring something that not a lot of people talk about, right? We know, right, for organ procurement and those kinds of things. It's something that's done, but being able to set up a scenario for that where we had family members, we had the patient on the vent, and we were really, really able to create like that realistic scenario of machines beeping and your patients there. And family members, maybe it was expected, maybe it was unexpected. We really got to bring that emotion to life. Our SPs are absolutely phenomenal to the point where I was kind of getting choked up sitting in our control room about the scenario of them talking with the family members about what was happening and what their options were, and also giving those people that work in the life share community the opportunity to have those conversations and practice that, right? Because I would hope I'm never in that situation, but I was very glad that they had that ability to practice that. So I think that really spoke volumes to me. And then another big uh project that I work on is doing a lot of our pipeline work. Now that I'm in this industry and I'm realizing that this is a career option, this is something I didn't know existed till three, four years ago, right? So working with our middle school and high school age kids out in the community in the school systems to show them what healthcare simulation is and what the operations role is. And so I get to go out and do summer camps with them and get to have fun. And so I've built kind of my own little curriculum, you know, in working with some of our educators to help show them what healthcare simulation is, and then that if you want to work in healthcare and you don't want to be a doctor or nurse, that there's more careers that they can work with.

Deb Tauber: 21:26

Good, good. Now, where do you see yourself going? You're you know, you're young in the field, and and where do you where do you see?

Katie Kushman: 21:35

Yeah, I think eventually, so my goal would definitely be to eventually see my cheese A. I think that would be something super cool to go to. And then probably I would like to continue to grow as a leader in the SSH community. I think that's something that I'm working by going to conferences. I've been able to go to SimOps for two years now and making those connections and finding mentors in the field to help me to continue to grow. Maybe possibly publishing in Storm someday. I think that would be cool about maybe some of the moulage that I'm doing and those kinds of things. And then even possibly one day becoming an SSH fellow. I think that would be a big goal for one day. So yeah.

Deb Tauber: 22:16

Yeah, good, good. Well, is there anything you want to ask me? Yeah. With I guess me talking a little bit about how we're doing our pipeline, I was wondering, how did you get started with The Sim Cafe? Oh, thank you. Great question. So it was during the pandemic and my daughter was over and she was talking about podcasts. And I was like, Well, how do you listen to them? What are they? So I kind of found out about it. So this was obviously 2020, right? And uh she explained to me what they were, and I thought, you know, I know a lot of people in simulation. I bet you I could see people aren't as busy right now during the pandemic, might be interested in and willing to talk to me. So I wrote down a list and I had a list of names of people that I was gonna reach out to. And sure enough, I would call them up and they'd be willing to do an interview. So that's how it kind of got started from there. And then uh I ended up, they invited us to do uh a podcast at SSH Live. Okay, very cool. And I thought, what's gonna happen? Because I know myself is it's gonna get closer to the day.

Katie Kushman: 23:24

Uh-huh.

Deb Tauber: 23:24

And I'm gonna say, I think I got COVID, I can't come, or something. I was gonna make up some kind of excuse. So I thought, if I get, and I befriended Jared Jeffries at that time. Okay. And uh he had a great story, and I thought, you know, maybe if I ask him if he wants to be my co-host, then if he goes, I'm not gonna bail if I have somebody else going that um that it's counting on me.

Katie Kushman: 23:48

Right.

Deb Tauber: 23:48

So sure enough, we went, and that's how we got started is having a co-host, and um that and how things kind of continue to take off from there.

Katie Kushman: 23:58

Yeah. What would you say your best piece of advice is to to finding all of these people in the simulation community? Because I've been listening to your podcast now for a couple of months, and it's been really cool because I've actually gotten to meet some of the people that you've talked with, which I think is super cool. So, yeah, what would you what would you say your biggest piece of advice for that is? Piece of advice for just yeah, meeting people in the in the healthcare community.

Deb Tauber: 24:24

Oh, I think just reaching out. You know, a lot of at the end of the simcaf a we'll say, if someone wanted to reach out to you, where would they go? Go ahead. If you have a question for them, reach out. They're I think the thing about this the people in simulation is many of them are just extremely humble and they really want to give what what they uh and share. And so to just reach out to them, I'd say I would say many of us, and I can speak back because I've spoke to many people. Many people who are in this uh in this industry just feel like, oh, I'm here, I'm an imposter, right? I I shouldn't be here. I mean, it's the way I feel all the time, you know, like I shouldn't be here, but but I am, yeah, and I'm willing to share. And yeah, people will call me up and they'll be like, Oh, I can't believe I'm talking to you. And I'm like, Well, what'd you think was gonna happen?

Katie Kushman: 25:13

I know it is it does feel like an honor to be able to talk to you. And I I definitely say I bat I would battle with imposter syndrome some days. I'm like, oh, do I really get to do all of these amazing things and get to be a part of this amazing community?

Deb Tauber: 25:26

Right. So right. I think when I became a fellow was really when it slapped me in the face. Yeah.

Katie Kushman: 25:33

Yeah. Well, it was it was kind of a a disbelief moment when I once I took my CHSOS exam and I got that like pass letter and my email and everything, and I was, oh my gosh, I did it. You know, I've been thinking about taking this and I've heard about it and been studying for it, and here it is. I actually have it in my letters, which I think is awesome.

Deb Tauber: 25:54

Thank you. Thank you. Well, Katie, if our listeners want to get a hold of you, where would they do that? If they want to learn about, hey, I want to go from whatever I'm doing, or I'm a young person, younger person and I want to get into Sam. Let me see. Can I lean into Katie for some information?

Katie Kushman: 26:09

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I have my email. So it's Katherine K-A-T-H-R-Y-N dot Cushman C-U-S-H-M-A-N at advocatehealth.org. And so that would probably be the best way to reach me at this point in time is via email.

Deb Tauber: 26:26

Are you on any social media?

Katie Kushman: 26:27

Like, you know, I am on LinkedIn actually. Yes, you can find me on LinkedIn as well.

Deb Tauber: 26:31

Okay. So send you a little I am in there. All right.

Katie Kushman: 26:34

Yeah.Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having me today.

Speaker 03: 26:39

You're welcome and happy simulating. Thank you.

Outro tag: 26:43

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 at The Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www.innovative simsolutions.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.