NCH Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center

10/26/2026

10/24/2026

We were proud to welcome Dr. Vanessa Hoytfox, MD and her team to the Simulation Center for a multidisciplinary rigid bronchoscopy training program involving Interventional Pulmonology, Endoscopy, Anesthesia, CRNA’s, nurses and tech professionals.

This advanced hands-on training utilized high-fidelity simulation technology to strengthen skills in interventional bronchoscopy techniques and prepare teams to deliver highly specialized bronchoscopy care. As this new Interventional Pulmonology program grows, patients in Southwest Florida will have greater access to advanced diagnostic and therapeutic respiratory procedures closer to home, reducing the need to travel hours for care.

Thank you to all participants and clinical partners for their commitment to excellence and innovation in patient care.

10/06/2026

🚨 Practice makes progress! ❤️

We recently conducted an in-situ STEMI simulation drill with Collier County EMS, Baker Downtown Emergency Room staff, the Cath Lab, and our Simulation Team.

Our mission? Reduce door-to-balloon time, identify opportunities for improvement, and ultimately improve patient safety and outcomes. ⏱️🫀

A huge thank you to our educators, leadership team, EMS partners, clinicians, Team Health, and everyone who stepped into action to make the simulation realistic and meaningful. Your willingness to practice, collaborate, and challenge the process is exactly how we get better.

Because when seconds matter, teamwork can be the best medicine. 💪❤️

09/20/2026

🎉 Healthcare Simulation Week 2026! 🎉

We kicked off Healthcare Simulation Week at the Judith & Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center at NCH with a wonderful appreciation luncheon celebrating the incredible team behind healthcare simulation.

This year, we were honored to recognize colleagues who go above and beyond to advance simulation and support safer, higher-quality healthcare with our annual awards:

🏆 Rising Simulationist Award
🏆 Simulation Educator of the Year
🏆 Innovation in Simulation Award
🏆 Standardized Patient Actor of the Year

These awards celebrate the creativity, dedication, collaboration, and passion that our simulation team brings to every experience. Through simulation, we work together to identify latent safety threats, strengthen systems and processes, build confidence and competence, and ultimately improve safety and quality in healthcare.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who contributes to this important work. Simulation saves live and it takes an amazing team to make it happen. We
Are grateful for the amazing simulation team we have at NCH❤️

Happy Healthcare Simulation Week 2026! 🎊🩺

09/09/2026

Our annual Stop the Bleed training was an action-packed, hands-on learning experience led by expert emergency medicine physician and Medical Director for Greater Naples Fire Rescue, Dr. Scott Dunavant, along with Lt. Matt Donovan.

This immersive course brought together our first-year Internal Medicine residents, transitional year fellows, and even our CEO, Paul Hiltz, who joined in to learn the critical skills of controlling life-threatening bleeding, applying tourniquets, and packing wounds.

With realistic props and scenarios, participants had the opportunity to put their skills into action, including practicing wound packing using realistic pork shoulder models prepared with simulated gunshot wounds. The experience provided an incredibly realistic opportunity to practice the techniques needed to control severe bleeding.

In an emergency, knowing what to do in those first critical moments can make all the difference. These lifesaving skills are not just important—they have the potential to save a life.

Thank you to Dr. Dunavant, Lt. Donovan, and everyone who participated in making this year’s training such a valuable and impactful experience! 👏🚑🩸

08/27/2026

What do you get when pulmonary education, immersive simulation, standardized patients, mixed reality, and a little theatrical talent all come together? A competency fair that was anything but ordinary. 🫁👏

On August 24, our Outpatient Pulmonary Division team spent the afternoon in the Simulation Center building skills, confidence, and compassion through a highly interactive Pulmonary Competency Fair led by subject matter experts Angela Snyder and Pamela Durbin, alongside our outstanding Simulation Center team members Meredith Burt and Tesa-Ann Smith.

From vital signs and manual blood pressure to Six-Minute Walk Assessments, FeNO testing, rooming best practices, and customer service de-escalation, participants engaged in hands-on learning designed to strengthen both clinical excellence and patient-centered care.

A highlight of the day: in collaboration with The Naples Players actors, Critical Care Fellow Dr. Eliot Parascandolo, and Dr. Doug Harrington, Medical Director of the Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center, learners stepped into realistic scenarios that brought the patient experience to life.

And yes, we even transformed our immersive interactive mixed reality room into a bronchoscopy room, allowing learners to walk through the bronchoscopy journey from beginning to end. Because understanding the procedure is one thing, understanding it from the patient’s perspective is where empathy begins.

Twenty staff members. One afternoon. Countless opportunities to learn, reflect, and grow.

08/19/2026

When the simulation room becomes a helicopter… buckle up! 🚁

The Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center team was thrilled to partner with TeamHealth, Baker Emergency Department, and Collier County Flight Paramedics for a two-day, action-packed immersive learning experience designed to sharpen critical skills, clinical judgment, and teamwork when seconds matter.

Task training led by Dr. Lance Lewis,
ED Physician and Assistant Medical Director of the Baker Emergency Department, Paul Farmer, ED Educator, Grace Petillo, Baker ED RN, and our very own Meredith Burt who orchestrated the curriculum, this experience took “hands-on learning” to a whole new altitude! ✈️

Our flight paramedics tackled high-stakes scenarios including:
🫁 Airway emergencies
🩸 Blood transfusion reactions
🚨 Rapid assessment and intervention
🤝 Team communication in high-pressure environments

And then… we took simulation off the ground. 🌎🚁

Using a 360° camera, our team filmed the inside of a Collier County flight medic helicopter and brought that environment directly into our immersive interactive room. Learners experienced the spatial awareness, confined workspace, noise, movement, and unique challenges of treating a patient inside a helicopter — without ever leaving the Simulation Center!

Imagine managing a patient experiencing a serious allergic reaction to a blood transfusion… in the back of a helicopter… with very little room to move. 😳

That’s where immersive simulation shines: practice the impossible before it becomes real.

A huge thank-you to our incredible partners and educators for bringing expertise, innovation, and a whole lot of energy to this experience. Together, we’re preparing clinicians for the moments when preparation matters most.

Train here. Respond anywhere. 🚁💙

08/13/2026

We are proud of the incredible collaboration between our Simulation Center and the Naples Zoo!

Recently, our team had the opportunity to visit the Glass Animal Hospital and observe clinical practices alongside Dr. Stovall and the veterinary team. This experience provided a unique opportunity to learn from another highly specialized healthcare environment and explore the many parallels between human and veterinary medicine, patient safety, teamwork, communication, and simulation-based learning.

We are grateful to Dr. Stovall and the Naples Zoo team for welcoming us, sharing their expertise, and helping us expand our perspective on healthcare through collaboration and innovation.

When healthcare professionals learn from one another—across disciplines and even across species—we all become better practitioners and educators. 🩺🐾😸😸😸

Here’s to continued collaboration, curiosity, and learning!

07/23/2026

Critical care skills met competition mode!

Our Critical Care Educator recently led an innovative, action-packed simulation experience for our 12 Critical Care Nurse Fellows and let’s just say, the ICU energy was very real.

This competitive timed challenge was designed with one big goal in mind: strengthening teamwork and communication under pressure. Fellows rotated through four breakout rooms, each featuring realistic scenarios they may encounter while caring for patients in the intensive care setting.

From quick thinking to clear communication, our nurse fellows put their critical care knowledge to the test proving that when seconds matter, teamwork truly makes all the difference.

We are incredibly proud of this group for rising to the challenge, supporting one another, and sharpening the skills that help provide exceptional care to our patients every day.

Fast-paced. High-stakes. Team-focused. That’s critical care nursing.

07/21/2026

The NCH Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center welcomed the new class of pulmonary critical care fellows in a weeklong bootcamp lead by Dr Carl Ruthman, Dr Doug Harrington and Dr Eliot Parascandolo .The training consisted of didactics and high-level procedural task training, including paracentesis, intubations, thoracentesis, central line insertions, arterial line insertions, airway emergencies, bronchoscopy training and much more! The Immersive Room was utilized with a multistage scenario "Critical Care Mayhem" focused on a critical care patient in ER needing ICU level care including multiple critical care procedures. The training ended with a multilevel "critical care night on call" simulation with the fellows completed 4 simulations simultaneously to enhance their prioritization, critical thinking, and time management skills. This multilevel simulation consisted of high-risk simulations coupled with live actors and NCH bedside ICU nurses and Respiratory Therapists as embedded participants to enhance realism! The fellows found the training extremely valuable and found a high educational value in a safe learning involvement.