Herlev (DK)

Who we are:

The Danish Institute for Medical Simulation (DIMS) is an educational body with primary focus on research and training activities related to doctors’ and nurses’ postgraduate education. We utilise a diverse range of teaching methods spanning from full scale simulation to part task simulators. Our aim is to improve the medical competence of health care personnel and thereby contribute to enhanced patient care and patient safety across all medical specialities

The Danish Institute for Medical Simulation was officially inaugurated as a county institute the 4th of September 2001 by the Minister of Health and the Lord Mayor of the Copenhagen County. Simulation based training has been one of the development areas in the department of anaesthesia at Herlev Hospital since 1994.

In June 2007, the whole institute moved to the 25th floor of the hospital, where DIMS now operates on 2400 m2, containing Northern Europe’s most advanced simulation facilities.

Our Team:

The centre has 18 full time positions. Three senior doctors, 5 specialised nurses, 2 PhD students, 1 psychologist, 1 patient safety expert, 1 project manager, 3 secretaries, 1 technical engineer and 2 floor managers have full time positions. One of the nurses employed at DIMS is responsible for coordinating training in resuscitation skills in the whole county. Moreover, twelve medical students and several nurses have part time positions at DIMS. One is a Master in Health Professions Education (MHPE) and one has a Diploma in HPE.

In order to develop and arrange the diverse courses, DIMS collaborates with a large number of doctors and nurses, who are trained as simulator instructors. It is our philosophy to involve domain experts from the relevant specialities (orthopaedic surgery, internal medicine etc.) and subspecialties in anaesthesia (paediatric anaesthesia, obstetric anaesthesia, airway management etc.) in each of the courses.

What we are using:

In order to create as effective learner directed training tasks as possible, a complexity of simulation tools is used in our courses. Those tools include:  

• Full scale simulators
• Part task trainers
• E-learning
• Computer-based micro simulation
• Simulated patients

What we are doing:

DIMS is engaged in research activities that primarily focus on the development of postgraduate and further education programmes for mainly doctors and nurses. In our courses we train specialist competences by means of simulated emergency situations, as well as decision-making processes and cooperation within specialist groups or multidisciplinary teams.

In addition, we offer national and international train-the-trainer courses, in which future instructors learn about the principles of simulation-based education. DIMS is also an actor on the international scene and actively participates in different forms of cooperation across national borders.

In the late nineties, roughly 400 course participants per annum where counted at DIMS. This number has grown to 5500 course participants in 2006.