The Bay Area Simulation Collaborative (BASC) is comprised of representatives from schools of nursing and hospitals in the ten Bay Area counties. The CINHC provides leadership for the BASC.
This project, which is the third component of the Bay Area Nursing Resource Center, involves faculty development for nursing faculty and hospital educators in the Bay Area over a two year period. Four levels of training have been developed beginning with basic fundamentals through a train the trainer model. The goal of the training is to provide baseline knowledge that can be built upon and will provide a common language for educators. Faculty development is integral to incorporating the use of simulation in the nurse education curriculum.
The next piece of the project involves scenario development. The BASC team is spearheading this new approach to education through developing simulation scenarios and curriculum. The BASC will facilitate training educators to write scenarios in the BASC developed template; validate, test and ultimately, make scenarios available to the BASC community.
Finally, the BASC will be leading a research project involving schools of nursing to evaluate simulation as a new teaching modality. This includes measuring critical thinking using specific approved tools.
Our hope is that by utilizing simulation in schools, hospitals and regional centers, that educational capacity will increase by utilizing the simulation centers as a clinical site for training. In addition, hospitals will use the centers for ongoing training of their nursing staff, which will enhance the nurses competencies and confidence.