Reviews of the SESAM-2023 conference

Isn’t it true that there is always time for good news? Especially when it’s about SESAM! 

 This year’s conference of the SESAM community, Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine, took place in Lisbon on 14-16 June 2023. Since our project is happy to support educators and their professional development whenever possible, this year was no exception. 

 Those colleagues who submitted their abstracts for the SESAM community conference and were selected took part in the conference with the logistical support of the project. However, participation in the conference itself, as well as membership in the SESAM community, is free for Ukrainians. We are sincerely grateful for the support and openness of our colleagues! 

 So this year’s SESAM conference programme included presentations by colleagues: 

• Tetiana Bilous, Olena Korotun, Tetiana Shchudrova from Bukovinian State Medical University,  
• Maryna Dolzhenko from Kharkiv National Medical University, 
• We also supported the participation of experts who contribute to the development of simulation technologies in medical education in Ukraine, namely Dmytro Konkov from Vinnytsia Pirogov National Medical University and Tetiana Orabina, Director of the Medical Services Department of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. 

 Tetiana Shchudrova and Tetiana Bilous presented how student feedback influenced the revision and transformation of educational programs (“Curriculum development and transformation based on the student feedback”). 

 Olena Korotun spoke about the experience of trainers of the simulation center of Bukovinian National Medical University in creating a life support course for the civilian population during the war in Ukraine (“Life-support training course development for the civilian population and medical staff during the ongoing war in Ukraine”). In addition to Olena’s excellent presentation, which received tremendous support from the audience, we have another reason to be proud – the conference organizers recognized the abstracts to this presentation as one of the best and will be published in the journal published by the SESAM community, “Simulation in Healthcare.” 

 Here are some impressions of the conference participants: 

 “I was impressed by the event program’s complexity, scale, diversity, and richness. It managed to cover all aspects and areas of simulation education and simulation research: from the development, implementation, and evaluation of simulation curriculum, creation of interprofessional and cost-effective simulation courses, administration and management of simulation centers, to the methodology and quality assurance of simulation education with workshops on writing simulation scenarios, designing simulation training, developing targeted assessment tools and conducting student-centered debriefing. A series of lectures preceded the presentations and focused on the role of simulation in overcoming new challenges in healthcare, considering the Ukrainian experience, technological innovations, and the future of medical simulation. It was a unique opportunity to get acquainted, see and test the latest simulation equipment and training resources, and establish contacts for further cooperation,” says Tetiana Shchudrova. 

• Olena Korotun notes: “I remember one of the plenary presentations called ‘Walk your Talk’ the most. It was about cases when we, as teachers and trainers, make the very mistakes we criticize our students for. It was about how easy it is to spot these mistakes in others and how difficult it is to avoid them ourselves.” 
• During the conference, Dmytro Konkov was most interested in learning from the experience of other countries regarding the development strategy and priority principles of simulation medicine. “Interesting innovations in the development of medical education standards, innovative teaching methods, organization of clinical practice of primary care students (outpatient care), and further clinical implementation of the acquired knowledge and skills were presented by J. Rudolph (Harvard Medical School) and P. Dieckmann (University of Copenhagen). The reports by A. Gupta (Cambridge University) and D. Nestel (University of Melbourne, Australia) focused on the development of educational and professional programs in medical schools,” says Mr Dmytro. 

 We are glad that the conference was valuable and exciting. We also hope that the experience gained is already being implemented in the work of simulation centers and clinical skills laboratories of these educational institutions!