With over 5,000 members, SSH, aka The Society for Simulation in Healthcare, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to medical simulation. The purpose of SSH is to serve as a global community of practice to enhance the quality of healthcare. The nonprofit’s mission is to serve their members to foster education, professional development, and the advancement of research and innovation; promote the profession of healthcare simulation through standards and ethics; and champion healthcare simulation through advocacy, sharing, facilitating, and collaboration. SSH seeks to reduce errors in patient care and improve clinical performance through the use of simulation.
History of SSH
Stemming from the 1998 Society for Technology in Anesthesia, in 2001, the inaugural International Meeting for Medical Simulation was held. The Society was officially founded in 2004 by clinical professionals advancing the use of simulation for education and training in healthcare. Eventually, the organization changed its name in 2007 to include “healthcare” instead of “medicine” to better represent members in a variety of backgrounds that include medicine, nursing, allied health, emergency medical services, researchers, and armed services.
SSH hopes to foster the expansion of simulation-based technologies in modalities like manikins, virtual reality in medicine, audio-video debriefing, augmented reality, standardized patients, specialized task training, and more. The Society promotes these technologies and corresponding methodologies with the goal of improving patient safety and provider performance while reducing costs and medical errors.
The Society also provides the oldest research publication in the industry deemed the “Simulation in Healthcare Journal”, printed by Wolters Kluwer, which began in 2006. The peer-reviewed research journal is an interprofessional publication covering all domains within clinical simulation. The group also provides accreditation of simulation centers and certification of specialized simulation educators and operations specialists. Membership includes access to the journal and other online resources.
Other organizations dedicated to Healthcare Simulation include INACSL (dedicated to Nursing Simulation), SimGHOSTS (dedicated to Sim Techs), ASPiH based in the United Kingdom, SESAM Europe, ASPE (Standardized Patients), and Simulation Australia, among other smaller regional organizations around the world. SSH collaborates with other healthcare simulation organizations to develop and publish the Healthcare Simulation Dictionary, and the Healthcare Simulationist Code of Ethics.
Certifications and Accreditations
SSH offers recognition for programs and individuals through certifications and accreditation. The certifications and advanced certifications available are for educators (CHSE and CHSE-A) and for healthcare simulation operations specialists (CHSOS and CHSOS-A). In addition to certifications, SSH offers the opportunity to obtain recognition as a Fellow in the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (FSSH) through the SSH Academy.
For simulation programs and centers, SSH provides opportunities to become accredited. To become accredited, the program must meet Core Accreditation Standards plus one of the following accreditation standards: Assessment, Research, Teaching-Education, Human Simulation, Systems Integration, and Fellowship Program. Programs can obtain full or provisional accreditation. Accreditation is available for individual programs or as a multi-site consortium.
Sections, Special Interest Groups (SIG), Affinity Groups, and Regional Groups
The SSH organization offers members the opportunity to connect with other simulation professionals in the same field or with similar interests. The purpose is to allow these individuals to share ideas, collaborate around healthcare simulation-based research, learning, and clinical practice. Every healthcare simulationist can find their place to get involved in SSH.
Committees:
- Accreditation Council
- Advocacy Committee
- Bylaws Committee
- Certification Council
- Corporate Roundtable
- Development Committee
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
- Education Committee
- External Relations Committee
- Finance and Audit Committee
- Healthcare Simulation Week Planning Team
- Internal Relations Committee
- Meeting Oversight Commission
- Nominations Committee
- Research Committee
- Simulation in Healthcare Journal
- SSH Academy of Fellows
- STORN Journal
- Website Committee
Sections:
- Anesthesia
- Critical Care
- Emergency Medicine
- Hospital-Based Simulation Programs
- Nursing
- OB/GYN
- Pediatric
- Simulations Operations and Technology
- Simulation Program Leadership (Formerly Directors Section)
- SP (Formerly Standardized Patient SIG)
- Virtual Simulation
Special Interest Groups (SIGS):
- Advanced Practice Providers
- Perioperative
- Pharmacy
- Surgery
View the new HealthySimulation.com Community Groups to join one or more groups to discuss this topic with your Global Healthcare Simulation peers!
Affinity Groups: (Available to non-members)
- Accreditation Mentorship
- Assessment
- Designing Simulations
- Disaster Simulation
- Distance Simulation
- Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
- Federal Medical Simulation Training Consortium
- Formal Training (Fellowships, Certificates, Masters) Programs in Healthcare Simulation
- Healthcare Systems Modeling & Simulation
- In Situ and Mobile Outreach Simulation
- Internal Medicine
- IPE
- Journal Club
- Low-Cost & Low-Resource
- Mindfulness
- Neurology in Simulation
- New to Simulation
- Patient Safety and Simulation Collaborative
- Psychological Safety
- Rehabilitation
- Respiratory
- Safety II and Resilience Engineering
- Simulation Grounded Competency-Based Education
- Simulation in Dentistry
- Super-Sized Simulation Centers
- Value-Based Simulation
Affiliated Organizations
The SSH organization forms official collaborative agreements with other organizations that have a simulation focus to help them build strong relationships within the healthcare simulation community while creating broader awareness of their organizations. Working together, SSH and their affiliates are committed to advancing the field of healthcare simulation. SSH has affiliation agreements with:
Annual Meeting: International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH)
Based in the United States, SSH hosts the annual healthcare simulation conference entitled “International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare” (IMSH) each year to bring together over 4,000 Simulation Educators, Administrators, and Sim Techs for networking, educational courses, medical simulator exhibition opportunities, and more. Vendors are always in attendance to provide attendees with opportunities to learn and interact with their products. Some of the vendors that sponsor IMSH include Elevate Healthcare, Laerdal, Gaumard, Education Management Solutions (EMS), SimX, Intelligent Video Solutions, limbs & things, SIMUlab, and more!
Every year, the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) is held in a major city in the United States. Dedicated to healthcare simulation research and learning, the event provides an opportunity for โSimulation Championsโ from around the world to come together to network with peers, learn from experts, and see the latest medical simulation innovations. IMSH occurs annually in January.
IMSH offers hundreds of industry-leading presentations, solidifying the eventโs position as the worldโs premier healthcare simulation education and learning event. Those interested in attending do not have to be a member of IMSH to attend. Benefits of attending include session content, multi-disciplinary education, vendor contacts, and hands-on workshops. The event will also feature groundbreaking research on guidelines in healthcare simulation.
Other Educational Opportunities
In addition to IMSH, SSH collaborates with affiliated organizations to provide members with the opportunity for online educational professional development. Some of these are Women in Leadership annual symposium, Best Practices Workshops, and webinars.
