Communication training simulation for nursing, PA students

chhs students

CHHS students observing and discussing

In November, nursing and physician assistant students from the College of Health and Human Services participated in a training simulation for the Team Strategies & Tools to Enhance Performance  & Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) program. TeamSTEPPS  is a teamwork system developed by the US Department of Defense and US Department of Health and Human Services to integrate teamwork into practice to provide higher quality, safer patient care.

The simulation featured faculty from Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College role-playing scenarios with a number of pauses for interdisciplinary groups of students to discuss improvements in communication.

Dan Benard, EMS director at KVCC, and Al Moss, respiratory therapy coordinator at KVCC, joined Drew Zolp, faculty specialist I in the Department of Physician Assistant, and Tina Keeler, coordinator of nursing clinical operations in the WMU Bronson School of Nursing, as they acted out the scenarios.

"We appreciate the participation from our colleagues from KVCC," said Keeler. "We hope to be able to include their students in this simulation at some point in the future."

Students in WMU's Homer Stryker M.D. Medical School also receive TeamSTEPPS training. Plans are to collaborate with W-Med in the training as early as spring 2018.

"I really enjoyed this simulation," said McKenzie Clem, a junior in the nursing program. "It was great to get a visual of good teamwork in our future careers and great communication in the health care setting."

faculty role-play

CHHS faculty role-playing during the simulation