The first simulation center founded by an Italian scientific society, SIAARTI, opens in Rome.
On March 14, 2023, two important achievements were made on a single occasion: on that day, the first simulation center of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) was inaugurated in Rome, which is also the first simulation center founded by an Italian scientific society.
This event marks a major step forward for clinical simulation in Italy, and it is not surprising that the initiative comes from SIAARTI itself; after all, anesthesiologists and resuscitators are among the healthcare categories with the greatest need to practice simulation. SIAARTI’s interest in this educational methodology has always been strong: in fact, the society, in addition to having given ample space to simulation in the last ICARE congress in 2022,has for many years envisaged the use of simulation in its training courses, but only recently it has been decided to create a proper Simulation Section coordinated by Stefania Brusa of the Humanitas University Simulation Center.. As a result of this decision, the need immediately arose to centralize the Section’s training activities, offering a location in a geographically strategic location, easily accessible to professionals across the country.
It is no coincidence that the SIAARTI President, Antonino Giarratano, called the SIAARTI simulation center the ‘anesthesiologist’s home.’ With its 700 square meters of floor space, the center provides SIAARTI’s 11,000 members with an 80-seat room equipped with a high-definition ledwall of more than 8 square meters, two high-fidelity simulation rooms with dedicated direction, a debriefing room and a task-trainer room, enhanced by seven stations. The same building, located on Via del Viminale, will also house the SIAARTI Board Room, the Presidency and Secretariat offices dedicated to Training and Research.
The training offer, which will be at full capacity in 2024, includes 120 courses per year structured in pathways that are articulated in the Society’s spheres of expertise: Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Resuscitation and Intensive Care, Emergency and Urgent Care intra- and extra-hospital, Pain Therapy and Palliative Care in adult and pediatric settings. This initiative, however, stops not only at the establishment of a space where anesthesiologists and resuscitators can train through simulation practice, but also involves establishing a common philosophy within the Society. “In a May 2022 document, the minimum requirements of a simulation center were defined at the Society level so that there would be a standardization of the basics,” Stefania Brusa tells us, “In addition, an internal pathway for trainers in simulation was defined, a ‘Train the Trainers‘ that aims to lead to a shared methodology within SIAARTI. For the board of the Simulation Section, these events provide an opportunity finally to create a common thinking: as we always say, simulation is not a technology, but a teaching technique, therefore, we must not only run the manikin, but we must have in our toolbox all the equipment to create a good debriefing, a good structuring of a role playing. For all this, methodological and cultural standardization within the Society is desirable and necessary.”
The side goal of this operation is therefore to create best practices in the field of medical simulation, as well as to provide a place where they can be implemented and disseminated. Simulation as an educational project takes a further step forward, opening a gateway within one of Italy’s longest-running and most important scientific societies.
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