Over simulated? Simulation; surely one of the fastest growing parts of health education in recent times. There is much more to simulation than a plastic mannequin and healthcare is but a small part of the bigger picture. Matt McPartlin went along to the Australasian Simulation Congress and spoke to ICU nurse and co-convenor Jessica Stokes-Parish.

We sent Matt McPartlin off to pretend to be a submariner, a jet pilot and an ICU Nurse. He wasn’t qualified for any of these difficult tasks but he is qualified to talk about it. Here is Matt’s report:

“War, video games and virtual hospital beds. There are links. Many links. The ever present threat and application of war in various parts of the world have throughout history led to advances in healthcare. (Some see this as a benefit but arguably, at best war has pressed the need rather than generated the the benefit itself, but that’s not the point of this particular podcast.)

One of those links is training. And simulation has been an integral part of training. The military uses simulation in many forms – tabletop exercises, part task trainers, in situ simulation and more recently virtual reality. Video gaming is essentially entertainment through simulation. Industries such as engineering, logistic supply chains and motorsport use simulation too. And so does healthcare.

So it would seem that each of these areas might be able to contribute something to eachother’s development. A group of simulation enthusiasts certainly think so. They organised a big simulation congress to help that process along. And they threw in research themes, expert-led workshops and DIY self help sessions.

It’s called the Australasian Simulation Congress and it happened for the third year over 4 days at the end of August in Sydney’s International Conference Centre on Darling Harbour.

Jessica Stokes-Parish is a critical care nurse who has spent time running and developing simulation training at both Newcastle and Tamworth Hospitals in New South Wales. She is also one of the convenors of the Australasian Simulation Congress.

Australasian Simulation Congress 2017 program.

We talk about the origins of the Congress, the development of simulation based training, take a peek into the near future and try to solve the lack of surfing opportunities in Tamworth.” MMcP

For more information or to get involved in a simulation community, check out Simulation Australia.

Please check out the excellent podcast on all things health and Simulation; “Simulcast” starring @injectableorange and @SocraticEM. You can find it on iTunes and all good purveyors of podcastery. Have a listen to their special shows from September 2017 which were the “Official Broadcasts” from the Congress that Matt and Jessica mention during their chat.

Thanks to Matt for going along and playing with the expensive toys. More thanks to Jessica for taking the time to talk to us. She was very busy and we are very appreciative.

Thanks also to Róisín Murphy, formerly of Moloko, for the clips from her solo disco throwback “Simulation” from 2012. This is the Mano Le Tough remix. You can find that on iTunes and somewhere out there is the 12 inch EP on vinyl.