British Columbia interprofessional model for simulation-based education in health care: a network of simulation sites

The rapid uptake of simulation-based education has led to the development of simulation programs and centers all around the world. Unfortunately, many of these centers are functioning as localized silos and not taking advantage of the potential for collaboration with other regional centers to promote interprofessional education. In the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada, 38 institutions, including health care authorities, universities, colleges, and other health-related organizations, have participated in assessing the use of simulation in BC and in developing a provincial model that enables collaboration and interprofessional learning at the provincial level. This article describes methods and results of a needs assessment and discusses an interprofessional simulation in health care educational model that provides access for all health care professionals in BC regardless of their geographic location and/or institutional affiliation. We anticipate that this information will be useful to and supportive of others in developing simulation collaborations in their respective regions.