In the Spotlight: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)
Center Spotlight

In the Spotlight: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)

In the Spotlight: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)
Submitted By: Amy Rush
Full Center Name: Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIPS)

   
                            

Center Location: Memphis, TN, USA
Year Opened: 2018

Center Mission Statement: The Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIPS) endeavors to advance healthcare through patient simulation as an international center of excellence for healthcare simulation. CHIPS is centered on the values of psychological safety, transparency, and servant leadership. It is dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare delivery through education, research, assessment, and enhanced clinical skills training with simulated patients (SPs), high-fidelity patient simulators (manikins), and virtual reality settings.

Bragging Points:

  • CHIPS is accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
  • Our center employs two logisticians who coordinate with center staff and university faculty more than 36,000 learner hours in a year.
  • CHIPS is one of the largest free-standing simulation centers in Tennessee: a 45,000 square-foot, stand-alone building for healthcare simulation and interprofessional education for six colleges without our health science center.

What makes your team work well?

  • We all have different ways of moving through the world and we analyze challenges differently
  • We solicit feedback from SPs and learners and take that feedback to heart when developing and redesigning curriculum and policies.
  • We love what we do and we understand that we're shaping healthcare providers who may be serving ourselves and our loved ones.

Learner Groups Supported

  • Medical/ Osteopathic Students
  • Nurses
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Pharmacy
  • Physical Therapy
  • Physician Assistants
  • Practicing Physicians
  • Residencies/GME
  • Other – We also work with Dentistry Learners

Is there a GTA/MUTA program?
No

Center Name By the Numbers:

  • Classroom/Seminar Room: 4
  • Control Room: 6
  • Counseling Room: 2
  • Critical Care Room: 7
  • Debriefing Room: 7
  • Exam Room: 24
  • Lounge/Kitchen/SP Staging Room: 2
  • Monitoring Room: 2
  • Residential/Home Visit Room: 1
  • Extended Reality (AR/VR) Space: 1
  • Other: A community pharmacy; two skills labs, each with 12 beds and work tables; an operating room and a labor & delivery room.
  • Do the counseling/exam Rooms have 1-way mirrors? No
  • Recording System: Laerdal SimCapture
  • Employees/Staff of Center or Program (excluding SP): 18
  • Staff Managing SP Program: 2 SP Educators, 1 Director of Education
  • Number of SPs: 75
  • Total SP Hours Worked in One Year: about 9,000

Please direct any questions about the Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIPS) to Amy Rush

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The mission of the ASPE Center Spotlight is to connect simulation centers and promote interagency and interdisciplinary collaboration in SP and simulation methodology.