WFSA-UCSF Med Ed Simulation Fellowship

In the Fall of 2017, I pursued a 2-month WFSA medical education (Med Ed) simulation fellowship at the University of San Francisco, California (UCSF). This fellowship was jointly supported by the Hellman Family Foundation through a collaboration between UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (WFSA). 

While working to develop simulation centers in Uganda together with my mentor and friend Dr. Michael Lipnick, we recognized a need for faculty trained to provide medical simulation in Uganda. Seeing great potential for simulation as an adjunct teaching tool, I sought additional learning opportunities and there could be no better place than San Francisco! 

This experience provided a unique simulation opportunity including exposure to 4 different sites at UCSF. These include: the VA hospital simulation center, Parnassus (Kanbar simulation center), Mission Bay Benioff Children’s Hospital and the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. 

I gained invaluable experience planning scenarios, shadowing the sim technicians, building models and simulation material from scratch, participating as a confederate, training and teaching on partial-task trainers, and debriefing among others. 

Equally useful were the “teach for UCSF” Med Ed certificate courses and MOCA that I was invited to attend. Some of the courses included the Art of Effective Feedback, Clinical Teaching, Leadership in Education, Inter-professional Teaching, Simulation Certificate, MOCA and Journal Clubs. I made sure I attended as many as possible. 

After my fellowship, I returned home to Uganda to continue with the second part of the fellowship. My current focus is to develop a cohort of simulation trainers and instructors through “train the trainer” courses in this region. My aspiration is for every anesthesia training institution to have simulation facilities, with simulation integrated into the core training curricula. 

For me, it was a humbling experience working and learning from teams at ZSFG, SFVA, Mission Bay Benioff Hospital and the Kanbar Simulation Center. They all welcomed me and offered help at every opportunity. I will forever be grateful. 

The author, Dr. Fred Bulamba, is the first WFSA Med Ed Simulation Fellow. He is a physician anesthetist from Uganda.