Describing one of the four gargantuan hospitals-on-wheels managed by her Simulation In Motion \u2013 North Dakota (SIM-ND) program, SIM-ND Coordinator Tawni Harvala acknowledged that for as amazing as her 44-foot semis are, they can\u2019t do everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re too high,\u201d admitted Harvala of the trucks, explaining how current and future physicians, nurses, and first responders can\u2019t practice loading and unloading patients with the trucks. \u201cAnd because these are massive trucks, we\u2019re dependent on drivers who need a commercial driver\u2019s license (CDL) to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of that is about the change.<\/p>\n
In December 2024, the SIM-ND program, an extension of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) Simulation Center, was awarded $1.3 million grant by the Economic Development Administration (EDA).<\/p>\n
The award will help SIM-ND procure four new mobile simulation vans, said Harvala, allowing the SMHS to continue its outreach medical training efforts across North Dakota in a more efficient and comprehensive way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vans will be a great addition to our fleet,\u201d Harvala explained, emphasizing that the semis are not being retired and will still be used often. \u201cThey will offer additional simulation space and are better equipped to handle our extreme North Dakota weather. Additionally, the grant will allow SIM-ND to purchase updated simulation equipment, including new state-of-the-art infant simulators, simulated ventilators, and simulated defibrillators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kara Eickman, M.D., medical director of the SMHS Simulation Center, agreed.<\/p>\n
Explaining how there are parts of North Dakota that the semis simply can\u2019t access \u2013 due to underbuilt infrastructure, for example \u2013 Eickman noted how the new vans will be \u201camazing\u201d and will allow Harvala\u2019s team to do more and better health simulation training across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of rural communities that really could benefit from our services, but we just haven\u2019t been able to get in there,\u201d she said. \u201cThese vans are going to expand our reach and capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simulation across North Dakota<\/strong><\/p>\n Since 2013, SIM-ND has been bringing hands-on training to healthcare workers throughout North Dakota, from rural paramedics and firefighters to national guardsmen, medical residents, and physicians. The program has done so to date using the mobile simulation trucks that offer two separate simulation spaces and provide versatile and unique learning opportunities. With the help of high-fidelity human simulators \u2013 or \u201cmanikins\u201d \u2013 SIM-ND can immerse learners in a safe but realistic learning environment.<\/p>\n Its massive semis and CDL restrictions notwithstanding, then, part of the reason SIM-ND hasn\u2019t been able to reach as many communities in North Dakota as it could is because it began its life outside of the SMHS umbrella.<\/p>\n Initially funded by a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, SIM-ND began as a partnership between UND, North Dakota\u2019s six tertiary hospitals in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot, and the state\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services (DHS). For a number of financial and logistical reasons, though, a handful of the program\u2019s original sponsors have had to withdraw their support of late.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it is time, said Eickman, to bring SIM-ND more officially \u201cinto the fold\u201d of the SMHS Simulation Center.<\/p>\n \u201cI want SIM-ND to be fully under our umbrella,\u201d said Eickman. \u201cThe same goes for the new medical simulation space coming online at our Southeast Campus building in Fargo. We hope to take ownership of all of the various moving parts of UND-based simulation in the region, so all of it is part of the SMHS Simulation Center.\u201d<\/p>\n Harvala added that since the program\u2019s inception, SIM-ND has helped train more than thirty thousand individual healthcare learners via its medical simulation activities in communities across North Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited about all the ways this award allows us to continue to expand and fulfill our mission while enhancing North Dakota\u2019s healthcare workforce and building resiliency in the healthcare professionals throughout North Dakota,\u201d said Harvala. \u201cUltimately, this work will mean improved patient care and outcomes in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming home<\/strong><\/p>\n A 2004 graduate of the SMHS, Eickman, a neurologist by training, assumed the role of Simulation Center Medical Director when the former Director, Jon Allen, M.D., retired in June 2024.<\/p>\n Eickman had long worked alongside Allen, making her a natural next leader for the Center.<\/p>\n \u201cJon trained me when I was a student,\u201d she said. \u201cHe had just started building up the doctoring skills simulation program back then and it made a lot of sense for us to work together again when I came back to North Dakota after residency. I started teaching through our patient-centered learning (PCL) facilitation and then got pulled into more of the simulation training in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n As Eickman noted, her former position with Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., saw her working directly with not only other physicians but physical, occupational, and speech therapists, nurses, and even social workers. Such interprofessionalism is exactly how the Simulation Center manages its various scenarios, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur interprofessional team at Sanford\u2019s muscular dystrophy clinic also collaborated with cardiologists, pulmonologists, sleep medicine doctors, and lots of other medical fields to care for our patients,\u201d Eickman added. \u201cWorking here in the Sim Center allows me to continue to educate all of those students who are very important parts of the healthcare team that I worked with in the clinic. So it fits nicely with the mission I adopted when taking care of my neurology patients.\u201d<\/p>\n And now, Eickman, said, it\u2019s time for the Simulation Center to find new ways to build on Allen\u2019s model and expand its reach across the state.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lots of opportunities for growth,\u201d she concluded. \u201cThere are many students in all these areas of healthcare who would benefit from simulation. What we\u2019re really trying to do is make our space accessible to learners from various healthcare programs and support their instructors\u2019 efforts in using simulation to educate their students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Describing one of the four gargantuan hospitals-on-wheels managed by her Simulation In Motion \u2013 North Dakota (SIM-ND) program, SIM-ND Coordinator Tawni Harvala acknowledged that for as amazing as her 44-foot semis are, they can\u2019t do everything. \u201cThey\u2019re too high,\u201d admitted Harvala of the trucks, explaining how current and future physicians, nurses, and first responders can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":13176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3385,3384,293,3489,1296,3490,3492,304,3383,3491],"class_list":["post-13175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-economic-development-administration","tag-eda","tag-grant","tag-mobile-simulation","tag-north-dakota","tag-outreach","tag-semi","tag-sim-nd","tag-simulation-in-motion","tag-van"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n