Simulation Fellowship

Program Description

The Mount Sinai West and Morningside Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship provides advanced education in the dynamic field of simulation-based medical training. The Center for Advanced Medical Simulation (CAMS), at Mount Sinai West, is a fully interdisciplinary medical simulation center that provides instruction and coaching for a wide variety of medical and allied health practitioners from novice trainees to expert clinicians. The Simulation Center leadership and faculty include physicians from the Department of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine Critical Care, Anesthesiology, and Surgery. The Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship is a one year mentored fellowship that offers advanced training in simulation teaching, curriculum and operational design, quality improvement and simulation research paired with experiential opportunities to change actual medical practice. As a major training site for residents and medical students, the fellows are able to work closely with junior trainees providing both clinical and teamwork based education on an ongoing basis throughout the year. They work closely with the administrative divisions to advance quality and safety through teamwork based training and research projects focused on risk reduction in the clinical environment.

Fellows work clinically as half-time attending faculty and average 20 clinical hours per week (900 hours per year) in the Emergency Department at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside. Compensation for the Simulation Fellow includes a competitive salary and benefits based on half-time attending status. In addition to fellowship-related activities, the clinical duties will allow for enhancement of professional skills.

Fellowship Elements

  • Independent and didactic training in the history and theoretical basis of simulation in medical education.

  • Assessment of operational needs and implementation of projects to improve Emergency Department safety, efficiency and patient care.

  • Instruction in the operation and programming of a variety of medical simulation technologies, including:

    • High-Fidelity Human Patient Simulators

    • Partial Task Simulators

    • Computerized Simulation Technologies

    • Virtual Reality Simulators

    • Simulation Audio-Visuals

    • Data Management System

Fellowship Objectives

Medical Simulation

  • Learn to create and facilitate comprehensive interdepartmental and interdisciplinary medical simulation scenarios.

  • Educate learners by using high and low fidelity medical simulation, ultrasound-integrated simulation, standardized patient simulation, procedural simulation, and disaster code simulation.

  • Develop technical programming skills necessary to build and deliver real-time case scenario algorithms.

  • Utilize medical simulation to improve patient care, reduce medical errors and promote patient safety.

  • Become proficient in managing a high-fidelity academic simulation center

  • Develop networking relationships with leading experts as well as junior practitioners across the field of medical simulation.

Interpersonal and Team based learning

  • Develop effective interpersonal communication skills centered around high-risk scenarios.

  • Develop understanding of specific words and strategies to provide leadership, crisis resource management and conflict resolution.

  • Recognize barriers to communication and practice communication skills to establish a shared mental model.

  • Establish regular use of tools such as TeamStepps to enhance teamwork and interpersonal communication to prevent medical errors.

  • Teach and guide other physicians and learners effective communication and leadership skills using simulation based education strategies.

  • Recognize and adapt strategies for teaching and communicating with physicians and patients of different socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures as well as varying degrees of medical literacy.

Systems Based Practice

  • Simulation Fellows must demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care, as well as the ability to call effectively on other resources in the system to provide optimal health care.

  • Fellows are expected to:

    • Use simulation to improve communication between intra- and interdisciplinary medical teams.

    • Participate in Quality Improvement Committees

    • Recognize the importance of reducing medical errors, and invoking strategies to achieve this goal.

    • Create simulation scenarios to test processes and identify system errors and latent safety threats.

    • Improve and Implement operational designs

    • Use simulation to enhance a culture of safety.

Educational and Academic Activities

  • Simulation fellows’ professional growth and activities are integral drivers of the department’s educational mission.

  • Fellows participate in and lead training sessions at resident and medical student conferences.

  • Fellows have options to develop curricula and maintain involvement in ongoing physician assistant, nursing and off-service rotator training.

  • Fellows participate in both local and national academic conferences. Some have recently attended or participated in the following conferences:

    • The Comprehensive Instructor Workshop in Medical Simulation, at the Harvard Center for Medical Simulation

    • International meeting for Simulation in Healthcare

    • SAEM Annual Symposia, with participation in “SimWars”

    • ACEP Annual Symposia, with participation in “SimWars”

    • Annual Mount Sinai Tristate Regional Simulation Symposium

Research

Simulation Fellows will generate independent research questions and develop projects under the guidance of faculty mentors. Ongoing funded division research focuses on operational design, patient safety and quality improvement. Each fellow will successfully initiate, at minimum, one scholarly project during the fellowship. Fellows will submit appropriate research for presentation and publication. Fellows will attend a weekly meeting discussing important topics/articles in the field of medical simulation.

Benefits

  • CME: $3000/year/fellow (provided by the Department of Emergency Medicine) and reimbursement for CMS course

  • Conferences: Conference fees will be reimbursed for accepted research abstracts and oral presentations, as well as for participation in specific simulation-related activities, such as “SimWars”.

Application Requirements

  • Application: Cover letter, curriculum vitae, and two letters of recommendation.

  • Deadline: Oct. 1 (year prior to accepting year)

  • Interviews: October - November (year prior to accepting year)

  • Contact: Please submit application to Joshua McHugh, MD with subject line “Simulation Fellowship Application”.

  • Clinical Requirements: Applicants must have completed or expect to complete an ACGME-accredited Emergency Medicine residency and meet all credentialing and academic appointment requirements.

Simulation Division

Joshua McHugh, MD (fellowship director)

Daniel Satnick, MD

Wei Li, MD (faculty)

Jon Deassis, MD (faculty)

Rishi Malik (fellow)

Zilin Zhou (fellow)