North Dakota Simulation Center receives sustaining grant

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—The Simulation Center at UND’s School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) has received the first half of a two-year $250,000 grant for a project entitled “Sustaining the SIM-ND Program.” The multi-sponsor grant was awarded jointly by five health care providers from across the state: Altru Health System, Essentia Health, CHI St. Alexius Health, Sanford Health – Fargo, and Trinity Health. Each provider has agreed to contribute $25,000 per year to the SMHS Simulation Center for two years.

“Simulation in Motion–North Dakota [SIM-ND] has reached more than 11,000 learners, provided more than 1,100 continuing education hours, and traveled at least 94,000 miles in the four years the program has existed,” said Amy Malheim, M.S., program administrator for the Simulation Center. “Through the continued partnership between the UND SMHS and the five major health systems in the state, SIM-ND will continue to carry out its mission of improving the health of all current and future North Dakota residents.”

The SMHS Simulation Center is a hands-on simulation training facility for multidisciplinary health care providers. The state-of-the-art space offers a clinical setting where health care professionals can actively apply their knowledge in simulation, observation, and debriefing of real-life patient scenarios, with the goal of improving patient safety and care. The innovative facility is the only one of its kind in North Dakota; its mission is to use interactive simulation in teaching, educating, and providing an arena for research in health care.

The Simulation Center manages four Simulation In Motion-North Dakota (SIM-ND) mobile education units: custom-built, 44-foot long learning labs on wheels. SIM-ND units bring simulation education to all third-year medical students training at SMHS campuses away from Grand Forks. Units also provide health care education to rural areas of North Dakota so emergency responders and other providers can upgrade their skills closer to home rather than leave their service areas for training.

The funding of “Sustaining the SIM-ND Program” allows the Center to continue its original mission of providing health care simulation for health professionals from across the state, as well as assist in providing continued simulation education to third-year medical students.

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Brian James Schill
Assistant Director, Office of Alumni and Community Relations
University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences
701.777.2733
brian.schill@UND.edu | med.und.edu