SMHS Simulation Center celebrates Healthcare Simulation Week 2026
The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) Simulation Center is celebrating Healthcare Simulation Week from Sept. 14-18. In recognizing the week, North Dakota’s largest and most active healthcare simulation space joins institutions around the world in recognizing the role medical simulation plays in preparing healthcare professionals and improving patient care.
Throughout the week, the SMHS Simulation Center, which also manages a space in Fargo, N.D., will host simulation-based educational events involving more than 500 learners from a variety of healthcare disciplines at UND. Activities such as birthing, emergency room trauma, and end-of-life care, are taking place every day and showcase the breadth of simulation education occurring across UND’s health professions programs.
“We’ve developed a variety of healthcare scenarios that expose learners to the situations they’re most likely to see in the hospitals and clinics,” said the Center’s Operations Director Jessi Nicola. “We utilize both human ‘patients’ and robotic manikins to prepare North Dakota’s future healthcare professionals to practice, reflect, adapt, and collaborate in a safe learning environment before caring for real patients.”
The week culminates on Friday, Sept. 18, with the School’s single largest simulation event, Interprofessional Healthcare (IPH) Day. At IPH Day, nearly 300 students from multiple health professions programs – including pharmacy students from North Dakota State University in Fargo – come together for a day of simulation, case-based learning, and collaborative problem-solving. The event emphasizes the importance of teamwork, communication, and coordinated care while helping future providers develop the skills needed to work effectively in interprofessional healthcare teams.
And not only future health providers: the Center’s Simulation In Motion-North Dakota (SIM-ND) program sends staff to all corners of the state in specially equipped semi-trucks and “sprinter” vans to upskill veteran health workers. These roving healthcare simulators help train rural Emergency Medical Service (EMS) teams, community hospitals, and military units on-site in the latest developments in roadside trauma care, birthing, and low-resource healthcare.
“The people reaching out to us are rural EMS people, plus the oil and gas EMS substations, critical access hospitals, and rural fire departments,” said Tawni Harvala, SIM-ND Operations Manager for UND.
The 2026 Healthcare Simulation Week theme, “Sim Found Me,” celebrates the unique pathways that bring learners into healthcare simulation and highlights the educators, technicians, standardized patients, staff, and faculty who make simulation-based education possible.
From task trainers and physical exams in a clinical setting to large-scale, hospital-based interprofessional events, simulation has become a cornerstone of healthcare education at UND, helping prepare the next generation of providers to deliver safe, effective, and team-based patient care.
“Healthcare simulation allows us the opportunity to practice important skills before the need presents in the real world,” concluded Dr. Kara Eickman, director of the SMHS Simulation Center. “It creates a safe space to learn, make mistakes, collaborate, and build the confidence and competence needed to provide exceptional care. During Healthcare Simulation Week, we celebrate the educators, learners, and teams who use simulation to transform training today and improve patient outcomes tomorrow.”
