Beth Fentress Hallmark, PhD, RN, MSN, CHSE

By Erin Flynn Jay

Beth Hallmark decided to become a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE™) because having this designation sets one apart from other educators as an expert in healthcare simulation education. “It has enhanced my career by recognizing me as a leader and demonstrates my knowledge of the standards set for by the professional organization (Society for Simulations in Healthcare [SSIH]),” she said.

Hallmark is Director of Simulation, College of Health Sciences & Nursing at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. This division includes nursing, physical and occupational therapy, social work, public health, and pharmacy. A CHSE™ for two years now, Hallmark decided to certify because she wanted to demonstrate her expertise in simulation to her university.

Hallmark admitted that the exam was very hard, but she has been a simulations educator for more than 10 years. “I felt that my experience was definitely a bonus but SSIH publishes a list of articles to read, there are published books regarding the exam and I took a course offered by SSIH to prepare me for the exam,” she said, intimating that there’s a lot to do to prepare aside from having simulation education experience.

The best study tactic Hallmark used to prepare for the exam was being familiar with areas that she did not interact with daily. For instance, because she works in an academic setting, she was not as familiar with some of the information on the exam that concentrated on the medical side including just-in-time training (CPR, dressing change, and code). Hallmark also spent a lot of time reviewing the theoretical basis for simulation education (for instance, Dewey, Kolb, and many other theorists). There is nothing she wishes she did differently to prepare for the exam. Hallmark worked hard and passed.

The SSIH offers two levels of certification: the CHSE (which she has now) and the CHSE-A (which is the advanced CHSE™). Hallmark is in the middle of preparing for the advanced certification, which is a portfolio-based certification. She has just completed a video of her teaching a group of new faculty about simulation, and she will need to write several reflections to complete her portfolio.

Hallmark said she does a lot of administrative work, so a typical day includes checking in with her team and ensuring that things in the labs are running as planned, educating faculty about the simulation standards that are required by their accreditation, refining their policies and procedures, working with finance to order and repair equipment, making decisions about purchasing, and working with students and faculty in the simulation lab.

Her favorite part of being a CHSE is working with faculty to use simulation following the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) standards and teaching faculty to use great debriefing language so that the students can truly reflect on the simulation experience.

Hallmark feels she helps her students the most by providing a state-of-the-art lab for them to use and by educating the faculty in simulation pedagogy. A recent simulation lab experience covered interprofessional simulation and included physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work reviewing ethics and end of life. Hallmark has five mannequin labs and a live actor lab where actors interact as family members at the patient’s bedside.

What does she wish she knew when she started teaching? “That students did not have to know everything,” she admitted. “I am a pediatric nurse and I wanted students to know everything that I did. Now I want them to understand the concepts of caring for all patients such as patient safety and how it can be applied across the lifespan.”

The skills she thinks are essential for success as a CHSE™ are “vision, detail, and willingness to expand your expertise.”

If she had one piece of advice for someone thinking about becoming a CHSE™, Hallmark suggested the following: “Work in the field for a couple of years and spend as much time learning as you can, including reading the literature and attending conferences,” she said.

Students frequently come back and tell Hallmark how a simulation has impacted their practice. “Recently a student was at a festival and not at a place of work but was simply there and a bystander had a seizure; she emailed and told us that it was because of her experience in simulation that she knew what to do,” she concluded. “That is so rewarding!”

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