American College of Surgeons accredits USF Health simulation centers
The USF Health Simulation Consortium was recently awarded full accreditation by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as a Level I Comprehensive Education Institute.
The USF Health Simulation Consortium encompasses USF Health’s five simulation centers, which came together to develop the institutional self-study and participate in the on-site visit by representatives from ACS. The centers are the USF Health Simulation Center at Tampa General Hospital, the daVinci Center for Computer-Assisted Surgery, the TEAM Education and Multidisciplinary Simulation (TEAMS) Center at 17 Davis, the Center for Advanced Clinical Learning at the College of Medicine and the Center for Virtual Simulation and Clinical Excellence at the College of Nursing.
“ACS accreditation is an important milestone for USF Health’s existing simulation centers and for the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS),” said USF Health Associate Vice President Deborah Sutherland, PhD, project director of CAMLS. “It demonstrates USF Health’s compliance with national standards for quality and safety and validates our use of simulation to achieve educational and clinical outcomes.”
“The American College of Surgeons has recognized that USF Health is transforming future healthcare delivery by revolutionizing how we educate and train healthcare professionals to care for patients together. Beyond a seal of approval, ACS accreditation sets an expectation that USF Health will advance the quality and safety of patient care through validated educational outcomes,” said John Armstrong, MD, associate professor of surgery and medical director of CAMLS.
Dr. Sutherland, Alex Rosemurgy, MD; Beverly Hughes, BSN; Laura Haubner, MD; Dawn Schocken, PhD(c); Fred Slone, MD; Laura Gonzalez, PhD, ARNP, CNE; and Rita D’Aoust, PhD, ANP-BC, CNE, were members of the accreditation self-study team. They developed the USF Health simulation consortium’s governance structure, policies and procedures and process for developing and implementing simulation-based education for undergraduate and graduate students, residents and continuing professional development.
“I applaud the collaboration and interprofessional team work that resulted in the outstanding self study and full ACS accreditation,” said Alicia Monroe, MD, vice dean of Educational Affairs for the College of Medicine. “This accreditation a key milestone supporting our commitment to quality and continued innovation in curriculum design, training and assessment. We have taken a quantum leap forward toward our goal of developing our evidence-based assessment of technical competence across the learning continuum at USF Health.”
“The ACS self study we engaged in served as a successful interdisciplinary endeavor which I see as a harbinger of our future wins in team training in the CAMLS environment,” said Dr. Haubner, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of TEAMS. “It was truly both a multidisciplinary learning experience and fantastic team effort.”
The ACS noted that USF Health submitted an exemplary self-study that was interdisciplinary and demonstrated best practices that will be shared with other ACS accredited education institutes.
The purpose of ACS accreditation is:
1. To create a network of accredited Education Institutes across the country to assist surgeons, residents, medical students and other members of the surgical team in achieving the requisite knowledge and skills in order to provide optimal care to surgery patients.
2. To provide surgeons, residents, medical students and other members of the surgical team requisite documentation for the verification of knowledge and skills.
3. To create regional learning communities to assist individual surgeons, residents, medical students and other members of the surgical team in achieving their personal and continuous professional development goals.
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