In the video above, USF Health leaders and frontline workers look back on the successes, challenges and emotions they experienced while dealing with an incredibly challenging year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Their stories include developing testing supplies now used around the world, creating programs aimed at treating vulnerable populations and helping rapidly develop and roll out vaccines against the disease, which Dr. Charles Lockwood, MD, Dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine said “rivals the moon landing.”

USF Health College of Nursing vice dean Denise Maguire, PhD, administers a vaccine shot.

Inside four bustling rooms at USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), emergency medicine residents from USF Health, emergency nurses from Tampa General Hospital, and paramedics from Tampa Fire and Rescue worked together in simulation exercises to improve how they work as a team during intense emergency situations. Over the course of the day, the residents rotated through four scenarios: a patient with undifferentiated chest pain, a 5-year-old with complications from a snakebite, an infant with an unstable abnormal heartbeat, and a patient in cardiac arrest.

Ryan McKenna, DO, director of the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation for Emergency Medicine, guides participants through the snakebite simulation.

A team of emergency medicine residents from USF Health work together to help a manikin with undifferentiated chest pain.

The interprofessional team involved in the cardiac arrest simulation, practiced the process and communication of the transition from the pre-hospital team to the emergency department. This scenario was intentionally cut short after the first five minutes as a part of its educational design, also called scaffolding, said Ryan McKenna, DO, director of the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation for Emergency Medicine. The goal of this kind of teaching method is to make the information more manageable to retain by breaking up the lesson into segments. Not only does scaffolding avoid students becoming overloaded, but it also allows learners to identify subtle ways to improve that might be missed in a larger scenario.

“When you have focused efforts, you have a chunk of a component of that training that can now be brought into clinical practice and everyone has the same mental model and is applying it in the same way,” said Yasuharu “Haru” Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, executive director of CAMLS and executive director of interprofessional education simulation programming for USF Health.

Paramedics from Tampa Fire and Rescue helped to bring the cardiac arrest simulation to life.

During one of the run-throughs of the cardiac arrest simulation, an observing resident noticed that the nurse performing chest compressions on the manikin might benefit from standing on a nearby stool to improve her ability to perform compressions. He brought it over to her and placed it by her feet, but the message about the height-assistance was lost in the chaotic sounds of the emergency department and she did not notice the stool was there until the end of the simulation. That is just a simple example of the kind of communication gaps that can result in a missed opportunity or medical error in a hospital and it’s a small area for improvement that would have been missed in a more complex simulation. Many of the residents reported back to Dr. McKenna that they were already using the skills they learned to improve the hand-off in the subsequent days following the simulation-based training.

An interprofessional team including emergency medicine residents from USF Health, emergency nurses from Tampa General Hospital, and paramedics from Tampa Fire and Rescue, came together for simulation-based training.

In November 1999, the Quality of Health Care in America Committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report called To Err is Hu­man: Building a Safer Health System that stated as many as 98,000 hospital deaths occur each year due to medical error. Communication error is described as the cause of 60% to 70% of those preventable hospital deaths.

“We’ve done a lot of amazing things in technology and medical knowledge and science, but I think one thing that we haven’t done well enough in health care is really learning to work together in teams,” Dr. Okuda said.

Twenty years after the IOM’s report, the statistics are still alarming. In an effort to make life better and combat medical errors, USF Health incorporates interprofessional education as a primary part of its curriculum.

“Especially in the ER, it’s a team discipline,” said Kelsey Hundley, MD, second-year emergency medicine resident with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “Learning how to interact with people with different backgrounds and roles on the team is really important.”

Kelsey Hundley, MD, second-year emergency medicine resident with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, works with her team to help the infant with an unstable abnormal heartbeat.

Simulation exercises as a part of interprofessional education allows participants to practice in a realistic but safe environment, both for the learners and for the patients.

“It was a pretty enjoyable experience,” said Adam Koby, MD, second-year emergency medicine resident with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “We see these scenarios all the time in real life, but there’s always the opportunity to improve and I feel the way that you would improve the most is to practice those situations. During these simulations, we learn about individual pathologies, but more importantly, about team building.”

Adam Koby, MD, second-year emergency medicine resident with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (right), listens to Dr. McKenna during the debrief of the snakebite simulation.

When the various medical professions came together and were working in a training environment, “I saw smiles, energy and enthusiasm and I’ll bet you, for many of these folks, they won’t forget this,” Dr. Okuda said. “They shared the passion and I think coming together outside the clinical environment often builds stronger teams. So beyond just the training, there are the personal connections and the bonds that were created through this environment and interaction.”

Participants shared laughs and smiles during the simulation-based training held at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation.

Strengthening the education and training of the nation’s nursing workforce is critical to advancing patient care in an increasing complex health care system.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor emphasized the importance of highly skilled nurses during her Feb. 13 tour of the newly renovated USF College of Nursing George and Marian Miller Center for Virtual Learning.

Castor met with USF Health leaders, faculty, students, staff and local media to highlight the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act that she recently helped introduce in the United States Congress. The legislation would provide federal funding for advanced programs and initiatives to help prepare top-quality nurses – enhancing training that addresses an aging population, diversity, primary and acute care, as well as interprofessional education and practice.

“Nurses work tirelessly to keep our communities healthy, and they need our support,” said Castor during her visit. “This bill, if passed, would help prepare the nurses of tomorrow and provide a pathway to good-paying jobs across the country, especially in our state.”

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor speaking to USF Health leaders, faculty, staff, students and local media about the Title VII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act.

“We appreciate Castor’s efforts of introducing this bill in Congress,” said Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine “This opportunity would provide much-needed financial support for education and training programs that help prepare top-quality nurses and future faculty as well as minimize the existing nursing shortage across Florida.”

During her visit, Castor toured through the state-of-the-art experiential lab and met with students as they practiced basic health skills learned in the classroom.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor met with nursing faculty and students in the newly-renovated experiential lab.

The new space, which includes 12 hospital–like patient rooms, four separate simulation rooms, a skills lab, a community health room and a lab classroom, provides students a more realistic learning environment.

“Our goal was to design a high-fidelity simulation environment where students felt like they’re training in a real-world healthcare facility, and I think we’ve done that,” said Teresa Gore, PhD, associate professor and director of experiential learning in the George & Marian Miller Center for Virtual Learning.

Castor also visited USF College of Nursing on Bull Nurses Week, a student-organized celebration running Feb. 13 through 17. The week-long event recognizes students and their commitment to nursing education, clinical training and community involvement.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor meets with USF College of Nursing students as they celebrate Bull Nurses Week.

“Nurses are the backbone of health care,” said Donna Petersen, ScD, senior associate vice president of USF Health, dean of the USF College of Public Health and interim dean of the College of Nursing. “Investing in nurses is an investment in our communities, it’s an investment in our health and our sustainability as a vibrant society.”

To view more photos, click here.

Story by Vjollca Hysenlika, USF Health Communications 
Photos by Jessica Samaniego, USF Nursing Communications