UCalgary Nursing represents at Canada’s largest interprofessional healthcare simulation conference

On Nov. 25-26, Simulation Canada hosted 2024 Sim Expo at the Fairmont Banff Springs. The conference is the largest interprofessional health-care simulation conference in Canada and this year’s theme was simulation and advocacy.  

Simulation is growing in workforces and has a critical role to play in quality improvement and patient safety and the various posters, presentations and workshops brought together health-care administrators, educators, clinicians, staff and researchers to connect and network through health-care simulation. 

Rebecca Szabo, lead of the Gandel Simulation Service in Partnership with University of Melbourne was the keynote speaker on the first day. She’s an obstetrician/gynaecologist and medical educator with several leadership roles in simulation; her talk was titled “Advocacy in Action: Strategies to Embed, Integrate and Sustain Simulation in Healthcare.”  

A number of UCalgary Nursing faculty and staff as well as alumni were in attendance including members of our Clinical Simulation Learning Center staff Jeff Dawes, Nancy Histed and Peggy Gorrie. Some Faculty of Nursing alumni spotted in attendance were Jasica Munday, BN’19, Katherine Bright, BSc'00, BN'05, MN'14, PhD'20 and assistant professor (teaching) Georgina Bagstad BN'87, MN'19. 

Here were some of the poster presentations from UCalgary Nursing: 

• Improving Mental Health Outcomes: Virtual Simulation Develops Therapeutic Communication and Collaborative Practice Skills Amanda O’Rae, Michelle Cullen, Jennifer Langille   
• Empowerment Through Innovation: An Interactive Video-Novel for Simulation Readiness in Nursing Education  
  Justin Burkett, Karen Cook, Amber Porter, Kayla Dias, Lynda Sea