Summary

This video talks about the typical activities and responsibilities of a facilitator conducting a healthcare simulation course over the course of a day.

Before the course starts, facilitators have many administrative tasks to complete – meeting as an instructor team, going through the course structure and materials, setting up the classroom and simulation environment.

When participants arrive, the facilitators welcome them, provide organizational information about the day’s schedule, and present theoretical background on simulation, crisis resource management (CRM), and medical errors. This lays the foundation for the simulation exercises and debriefings.

Next is the familiarization phase, where facilitators demonstrate how the simulator manikin and any other medical equipment works. This is crucial for participants to understand how to properly interact with the simulated environment.

The core component is the simulation of clinical cases. Facilitators closely observe participants, take notes on relevant points for debriefing, provide lab data/findings at the right moments, liaise with the sim technologist running the manikin’s responses, all while being unobtrusive in the simulation room.

After each case, facilitators lead the debriefing – a moderated group discussion and reflective learning conversation, sometimes aided by video recordings of the simulation. Their role is to guide participants’ self-reflection, point out key situations, maintain a pleasant discussion atmosphere, and keep the debriefing focused while respecting time limits.

This cycle of case simulation and debriefing continues per the schedule. At the end, facilitators secure the sim environment, gather materials, and obtain course feedback from participants.

As the video shows, a day in the life of a facilitator is much longer than participants, arriving earlier for preparation and staying later for clean-up and it has plenty of responsibilities to juggle to ensure an effective, psychologically safe simulation-based learning experience.