Delivering Preparedness: Interprofessional Simulation to Support Rural Maternity Care
In maternity care deserts—rural regions with limited or no access to obstetric services—emergency departments often serve as the default site for childbirth. These high-stakes, low-frequency events require coordinated responses from interprofessional teams, many of whom lack routine obstetric training, standardized protocols, and access to dedicated labor and delivery resources.
To address this critical gap, the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning & Simulation (CAMLS), the Florida Center for EMS, and the American Hospital Association collaborated in April 2024 to pilot an in situ simulation training in Apalachicola, Florida. Titled "Obstetrical Transitions of Care: Interdisciplinary Practices for Rural Providers", the program was supported by philanthropic funding and designed to enhance team readiness and patient safety in rural hospitals without OB units.
This seminar will explore the design, implementation, and impact of the training, which brought together OB-GYNs, nurses, EMS personnel, and simulation educators to deliver immersive, team-based obstetric scenarios in the participants’ own clinical environment. Through the lens of health equity and workforce advocacy, the session will demonstrate how interprofessional simulation promotes role clarity, strengthens communication, and improves emergency response in settings where maternal outcomes are most at risk.
Aligned with the Nexus Summit 2025 theme, the seminar will offer practical insights into how interprofessional collaboration can advance the health of individuals and communities—particularly in marginalized and underserved regions. Attendees will leave equipped with strategies to replicate this model and advocate for simulation-based training as a scalable solution to rural health disparities.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
1. Describe how in situ, interprofessional simulation enhances rural health system readiness for obstetrical emergencies.
2. Identify key challenges rural healthcare teams face during unplanned deliveries and how simulation can mitigate these risks.
3. Develop a plan for implementing simulation programs that strengthen team performance, communication, and role understanding.
Practical Takeaways:
Participants will gain:
• A planning framework for rural in situ simulations, including team selection, scenario development, and debriefing.
• Strategies to build stakeholder buy-in for simulation in low-resource settings.
• Communication tools to secure philanthropic and institutional support.
Active Learning Strategies:
To promote engagement within the session, participants will take part in:
• Interactive Polling: Real-time questions that prompt reflection on team readiness and emergency response capacity.
• Collaborative Whiteboarding: Participants will share challenges and opportunities related to interdisciplinary collaboration in their own settings.
• Mini Simulation Design Challenge: Attendees will outline a simulation-based training relevant to their context, including setting, roles, and objectives.
• Call to Action Reflection: Participants will commit to one practical step to strengthen team-based preparedness in the next 30 days.