Our Story
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
The Tennessee Simulation Alliance began after the first statewide Simulation Conference was held in 2008 with grant funding from a national collaborative initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation which focused on establishing a stable, adequate nursing workforce. Participants and organizers of the Simulation Conference decided to create the Tennessee Simulation Alliance (TNSA) as a means to provide Tennessee nurse educators a central location for communication, collaboration and sharing.
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For the next three years subsequent annual simulation conferences continued with partial funding through HRSA’s Faculty Development Program: Integrated Technology into Nursing Education and Practice Initiative (Grant No. U1KHP12906, Elizabeth Weiner, PI, Vanderbilt University). As the Alliance continued to grow and needed to look for new sources for infrastructure and support, the decision was made to become an affiliate of the Tennessee Hospital Association in 2014. This relationship created the foundation that allowed the TNSA to continue to bring the world of simulation to the healthcare educators of Tennessee with links to current resources, scenarios, websites, conferences, and an in depth look at what is currently being practiced in simulation based healthcare education.
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In 2016 the Alliance membership decided to develop “Regions” within the state that could develop educational activities within that region making the Alliance offerings more accessible to everyone in the state. The Regions were based on “Tennessee’s Three Grand Divisions” of East, Middle, and West and they would be represented on the Alliance Board by Regional Directors at Large. At the annual conference in 2017, the first regional directors were appointed and added to the Board of Directors. Since that time there have been several regional activities of the TNSA with plans to develop many more.
For the future, the TNSA is looking forward to expanding membership to include more educators from medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, occupational and physical therapy, and various other healthcare disciplines. Supporting simulation-based interprofessional team training activities continues to be a focus for TNSA, as we know that collaborative clinical learning and practice, leads to safer patient care. In addition to continuing our simulation conferences, we envision a website designed to address the challenges and resources for those providing simulation-based healthcare education.
TNSA Vision
To be the collaborative resource center for all healthcare simulation programs in the state of Tennessee.
TNSA Mission
To improve patient safety and quality of care by supporting healthcare simulation programs in Tennessee with shared knowledge, resources, training, education and established partnership with Academia, Government and Industry.
THA and TNSA Relationship
The TN Simulation Alliance is an affiliate organization of the Tennessee Hospital Association. Therefore, the relationship between THA and TNSA is for secretarial and treasurer purposes, as the Sim Alliance is managed by a small group of volunteer board members from across the state. THA often assists with conference and event planning, and is the host organization for the TN Sim Alliance.
Meet The Team
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WORLDWIDE
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Alliance Regions
The TN Sim Alliance is separated into 3 regions, based on geographic location to give members an opportunity to connect with simulation specialists close to their location. Each location has a Regional Director that coordinates events for that region. The 3 regions include:
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