Carol Durham and Jennifer Alderman from the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will discuss how they use Friday Night at the ER as an immersive experience to teach systems thinking at 12:00 pm ET June 2 during the 2021 Virtual QSEN International Forum.

Durham, a Professor and Director of the Education-Innovation-Simulation Learning Environment (EISLE), is a master facilitator of the game, and is highly regarded for her work helping faculty to integrate quality and safety into their curriculum. Alderman, another skilled FNER facilitator, is an Assistant Professor and one of the first educators to complete our Remote Facilitator Training and Certification Course last fall.

Their joint presentation will focus on how systems thinking is fundamental to quality improvement efforts and has been suggested as a key element in improving patient safety. They will discuss how using the game enables learners to build their systems thinking skills, examine their implicit biases and reflect on behaviors that impact patient outcomes.

“We need everybody to be thinking about solutions and Friday Night at the ER gives you an opportunity to actually look at not only the way we might deal with patient flow, but the way we might deal with systems in the implementation of quality and the containment of cost,” Carol explains. “And those are forever important pieces of our healthcare system.”

The event, which is free for Forum attendees, is Session C during the Additional Opportunities from 12:00-12:50 pm. To register, please visit 2021 Registration.