Funded by The Friends of South Shore Health, VNA Sim Lab Helps Caregivers Meet the Growing Needs of Our Community

A spare office here. An empty conference room there.

As they worked to provide important, hands-on training to South Shore VNA nurses and therapists, Rebecca Lewis, DPT and Elisa Pollard, BSN, RN made do with any available space.

Training turned into a road show, with Lewis and Pollard loading their models and other materials onto carts and rolling them from one space to another to provide ad-hoc skills training.

With the VNA increasingly caring for sicker patients, an ongoing road show simply wasn’t a practical long-term strategy.

As Lewis and Pollard, who collectively serve as the VNA Clinical Education Team, discussed the situation with Lucia Auguiste, MSN, VNA Director of Clinical Operations, the solution became clear.

“We need a sim lab,” Lewis recalled Auguiste saying.

A sim (short for simulation) lab is a dedicated training space, commonly seen in hospital or EMS settings, where clinicians receive skills training using lifelike models.

The VNA Clinical Education Team agreed that a sim lab was the dream solution – but bringing it to life was another matter.

Sicker patients and the need for more robust training

While the average person may think of VNA care as something reserved for the elderly, the nurses and therapists of South Shore VNA care for patients of all ages and with a variety of different conditions.

In recent years, the VNA has started seeing more and more patients who return home with medical needs requiring advanced, complex care.

By nature, VNA clinicians need to have a broad set of skills to provide the best possible care for patients with diverse health needs.

“VNA nurses are every specialty at every time,” Pollard said. “You don’t always know what your patient is going to need from you on a given day.”

As the medical needs of VNA patients increase, the number of skills required to treat those patients increases as well.

“People are coming out more acutely ill after shorter hospital stays,” Pollard said. “We’re seeing patients with a larger scope of ailments. There are so many more skills that we need to be able to provide for our patients.”

Along with training clinicians on those new skills, Lewis and Pollard also wanted to provide a space for clinicians to sharpen existing skills in a collaborative, educational environment.

Ultimately, that’s precisely what a sim lab is: a safe, controlled space where clinicians can get guided, hands-on instruction on a variety of skills before using them in the field.

A vision brought to life, thanks to The Friends of South Shore Health

Launching a sim lab is no small feat.

Along with securing a space, Lewis and Pollard also needed to purchase models, supplies, and other equipment to outfit the sim lab properly.

They received permission to take over a former conference room at the South Shore Health Home Care Division offices in Rockland, and then Lewis and Pollard made a list of the items they’d need to bring the sim lab to life.

Faced with a funding gap, Home Care Division leadership suggested that Lewis and Pollard discuss their plans with The Friends of South Shore Health.

A division of the South Shore Health Foundation, The Friends are South Shore Health’s third-largest donor, collectively contributing more than $8.4 million in charitable donations since they were established.

In addition, one of The Friends’ annual events, Kickin’ Up Country, raises funds to support our Home Care Division, making a project like the sim lab a perfect fit for their mission.

Lewis and Pollard presented their vision to The Friends of South Shore Health Board, including the need for new technology and modern models.

The verdict was unanimous.

“We loved it,” said Barbara Wahlstrom, Manager of The Friends of South Shore Health. “It was exactly the kind of project we love to support. It aligned perfectly with our goal of supporting Home Care programs and helping the team deliver high-quality care.”

“It was a very exciting project,” said Leon Merian, President of The Friends of South Shore Health. “As the team explained how the Sim Lab would benefit VNA clinicians and how it would help improve patient care overall, it became clear this was something we wanted to do.”

Using funds raised at Kickin’ Up Country, The Friends were able to fully fund the new sim lab, making the VNA Clinical Education Team’s dream a reality.

“They funded the technology, they funded all of our new models,” Lewis said.

“The Friends really stepped up and made this project possible,” said Richard Pascarelli, Director of Revenue Cycle & Business Operations, Home Care Division. “They saw Rebecca’s and Elisa’s vision and helped bring it to life. All of our clinicians and our patients will benefit as a result.”

A dedicated space for Home Care clinicians to learn and grow

With funding secured, Lewis and Pollard began purchasing the supplies needed to properly outfit the new space, including modern training models.

New audio/video equipment was installed as well, allowing Lewis and Pollard to display presentations or connect to clinicians for remote training sessions.

By late 2024, the new sim lab was up and running, hosting regular trainings for VNA clinicians.

Today, the VNA Clinical Education Team uses the sim lab to teach clinicians new skills, like how to use the latest wound care wraps, and help them brush up on existing skills, like suture or staple removal.

“For example, if they’re going to see a patient who has a PleurX [catheter] and they haven’t done a PleurX in months, they can come in and practice on our model,” Lewis explained. “They can refresh those skills before they go out to see the patient.”

“We focus on them being able to have that simulated practice, that hands-on experience,” Lewis continued. “They can really go through the steps and do them so they feel confident knowing that they could go see a patient.”

Along with classroom education, Lewis and Pollard also accompany clinicians in the field as needed to both assist and observe.

“We have the best of both worlds, as we take it from the classroom then we go out and do joint visits with clinicians,” Pollard said. “We’re starting it in the sim lab, walking them through it, and then the ultimate goal is to see them perform that skill in the home and support them if they need it.”

With their training road show over, Lewis and Pollard have settled into their new sim lab space – and all of the VNA’s clinicians have benefited.

“We’ve had such positive feedback from the clinicians who have been participating in the simulation lab,” Lewis said. “At the end of the day, I feel like we’re really doing something very important to keep our clinicians on the cutting edge of providing quality care to our community.”

Training the next generation of VNA caregivers

Along with helping existing VNA clinicians sharpen their skills, the sim lab has allowed the VNA to expand upon and improve its process for hiring new caregivers.

In the past, South Shore VNA focused on recruiting nurses or therapists who had experience caring for patients in a home setting, primarily from other home care organizations.

However, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, the VNA has looked elsewhere for nurses and therapists.

“We’ve really seen a shift, and we’re not hiring as many nurses from other agencies,” Lewis said. “We’re hiring nurses from outside of home care, like hospital nurses and specialty clinic nurses.”

This change led Lewis and Pollard to adjust their orientation process for new hires – and the sim lab has played a big part.

“We had to retrofit our training, as we realized that we weren’t really accommodating new graduate or novice level clinicians,” Pollard said. “We also weren’t accommodating experienced nurses who may have worked for 35 years in an Emergency Department setting, where they were unfamiliar with nursing in a home setting.”

The sim lab has allowed Lewis and Pollard to expand the new hire orientation process, adding a more comprehensive, hands-on training component to help new colleagues build confidence in their skills.

Even after the initial orientation is over, Lewis and Pollard make sure clinicians know that the sim lab is there for them as a resource.

“We want our team to know they can always come back in here,” Lewis said. “We have new hires who will come back in after they’ve been out seeing patients and they’ll sit with us to go through a number of things: ‘what do I do in this situation?’ or ‘how do I document this?’ We’re here to help them continue to figure out how to do things.”

With the VNA Clinical Education Team’s knowledge and the modern tools available in the sim lab, a rewarding career in Home Care is now more accessible than ever.

“We don’t look at VNA as off limits to a new grad or to someone who has been in another care setting for a long time,” Pollard said. “Bring your knowledge and your unique skills with you, and we’ll train you to do the rest.”

Learn more about Home Care at South Shore Health and explore a career with our Home Care Division.