Schwartz Lab hosts healthcare simulation workshop for Caribbean Nurses Organization
Training focuses on healthcare standards and best practices Heading link
For the second time in less than a year, UIC Nursing has hosted a group of nursing professionals from the Caribbean for an event centered on partnership and knowledge-sharing.
In the last week of July, 11 nursing faculty from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize and St. Kitts and Nevis—all members of the Caribbean Nurses Organization—spent five days in UIC Nursing’s M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Lab, participating in a workshop focused on five of the 10 Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice®.
the sim team completed Heading link
“The sim team completed a needs assessment with potential CNO participants in early 2024 to determine where the gaps were in simulation-based education in nursing education,” says Katie Vanderzwan, DNP, APRN, CHSE, who led the weeklong workshop as director of the Schwartz Lab. “It was also important to everyone that we spent our limited time on culturally informed content to have an even greater impact.”
The seed for this workshop was planted in November, when more than 50 nurse leaders from CARICOM, an organization of 15 Caribbean nations, came to UIC for a two-day workshop on expanding the roles of Caribbean nurses in primary health care.
Those visitors toured UIC Nursing’s state-of-the-art Schwartz Lab, which sparked the idea for an event at UIC focused on simulation training.
“It’s very gratifying when an event is so successful that people ask to return for more,” says UIC Nursing Dean Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF. “Their interest shows that our Schwartz Lab is truly a world-class facility, and Katie’s passion for increasing the use of simulation in nursing education is contagious.”
Each day of the July workshop, Vanderzwan and the sim team delivered a short lecture, followed by an immersive simulation experience with attendees playing the roles of students or faculty. In total, 10 simulations were run during the course of the week. In between there was informal idea-sharing and cultural exchange, as well lunch and a short afternoon tea—common practice in the Caribbean—where college leaders dropped in.
The week was Heading link
The week was also constructive for Rohan Jeremiah, PhD, MPH, and Susan Walsh, DNP ’14, MS ’00, BSN ’80, CPNP-PC, UIC Nursing’s associate dean and associate director for global health, respectively. They hosted activities, such as a focus group and Q&A session, that supported UIC Nursing’s commitment to the Caribbean as a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for International Nursing Development in Primary Care.
Vanderzwan believes UIC Nursing was uniquely positioned to host this workshop “thanks to the expert work of our Global Health Leadership Office in fostering our international reputation” as well as maintaining UIC Nursing’s status as a WHO Collaborating Centre. The workshop was an opportunity to offer required professional development for international nursing faculty and build in-person relationships.
“Countless entities provide simulation training, but our CARICOM partners chose to come here,” she says. “They valued the UIC hospitality, the facilities and the simulation knowledge base we have here.”