Do We Risk Missing the Simulation Lessons We Learned during COVID?

For those in Hospitals who led simulation-based training, the COVID pandemic posed a continually changing array of training priorities. Those priorities began with donning and doffing PPE but quickly evolved to managing patients in isolation, difficult airway management, respiratory therapy, and the need to deliver emergency interventions across departments that were not prepared for the new pace at which care had to be delivered. 

Hear Libby Thomas, PhD, share how she and others in England’s health system used simulation to keep ahead of changing training needs during the pandemic. Dr. Thomas is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Kings College Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at Queen Mary University, London. As she explains, each day during the pandemic was a “blank canvas” with new problems to solve and new people to train. Much of the solution reflected a “train the trainer” paradigm that became essential to empowering new groups to problem-solve and dominate in their efforts save lives.