Pam Smyth

Pam Smyth

Assistant Professor
School of Nursing
Phone: (231) 591-2294-2294
Email: [email protected]

Education

• DNP, Ferris State University, Nursing, Nursing Leadership
• BSN, Ferris State University
• Certificate, Ferris State University, Nursing Education
• MSN, Ferris State University, Nursing
• ADN, Montcalm Community College

Biography

Highly skilled career professional with 20 years of practical experience in hospital, home health, psychiatric, hospice and education environments.

Presentations

• Poster
  Smyth, P., IMSH, "Improving pre-hospital Pediatric emergency care in a rural community," Society for Simulation in Healthcare, virtual, (2022).
• Poster
  Lenon, W., Owens, S., Westerkamp, L., Love, S., Smyth, P., Peterson, A., Thompson, W., 2022 Michigan Nursing Summit, "Academic-Practice Partnerships: Creating 360-degree Video for Nursing Education in the Northwest Region of Michigan," Michigan Center for Nursing, Traverse City, MI, (October 6, 2022).
• Oral Presentation
  Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), Archer, C. (Author & Presenter), Ryan, A. (Author & Presenter), Vanderlaan, T. (Author & Presenter), CHP Best Practices, "Implicit Bias in Healthcare," Ferris State University, (April 14, 2022).
• Demonstration
  Westerkamp, L. (Author & Presenter), Thompson, W. (Author & Presenter), Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), Love, S. (Author & Presenter), Brook, J. (Author & Presenter), HatchED, "Choose Your Own Adventure: Creating Customized Interactive Videos to Reinforce Concepts and Promote Critical Thinking," Ferris State University, (February 25, 2022).
• Poster
  Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), MIPERC, "Improving Pediatric Resuscitation Comfort, Confidence and Teamwork in Low Volume Areas with Interprofessional In-Situ Simulation," Grand Valley University, virtual, (September 23, 2021).
• Oral Presentation
  Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), fifth annual tristate regional simulation symposium, "Abstract Improving Pediatric Resuscitation Comfort, Confidence in Low Volume Areas with Interprofessional In-Situ Simulation Objective: National organizations have identified a gap in the quality of pediatric care in rural areas. For pre-hospital emergency providers in rural areas, pediatric emergencies are rare, and a lack of comfort and confidence in providers, and inadequate communication can lead to poor patient outcomes. This gap in quality was identified for our local Emergency Medical Service Providers. Traditionally an SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) hand over is used but it is not specific to the prehospital to in hospital interface. The IMIST-AMBO (Identification/Introduction, Mechanism of Injury/Medical complaint, Injuries/Information related to the complaint, Signs and Symptoms, Treatment given/Trends noted, Allergies, Medications, Background history, Other information) handover was developed to improve communication between prehospital and hospital providers but is not yet widely used. We hypothesized that providing interprofessional in-situ, simulation-based pediatric emergency training with an IMIST-AMBO handover that better reflects the language of prehospital providers while providing a concise complete hand over that meets the needs of emergency department staff would improve emergency providers' comfort, confidence, and teamwork in a rural emergency medical service. Methods: To meet the learning needs of the pre-hospital providers a project that included Interprofessional in situ simulation was developed. A practice-based inquiry was used to evaluate the outcomes of the project with a mixed-methods approach. This project was implemented in a rural healthcare system with a small population. This design was chosen for this project as the population of the 25 providers that participated is too small to allow for an adequate randomized control trial. The project was developed as a DNP project that was a collaboration between this researcher, Mecosta County EMS educator, and Spectrum Health Big Rapids. The subjects were EMTs, Paramedics, and first responders of Mecosta County and Lake County Michigan. Participants completed simulations of a respiratory failure leading to cardiac arrest and sepsis and utilized the IMIST-AMBO handover. The simulations started in the community, initial stabilization was provided, and the manikin was transported to the hospital with report called in, with hand-off done to hospital staff when safe and available. High fidelity tetherless infant and child manikins were loaned by Gaumard for the project. A pre-and post-test using a 1-5 Likert scale evaluated comfort with pediatric patients, confidence with pediatric patients, and comfort with simulation as an educational modality. Results: a total of 8 in-situ pediatric simulations were done. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only 25 of the expected 50 providers were able to participate in the simulations. Two simulations included a hand-off to hospital staff; the remainder did a hand-off to a volunteer. Analysis of the pre-and post-simulation Likert scale revealed a 10.4% increase in comfort with pediatric patients, a 9.6% improvement with confidence in caring for pediatric patients, and a 12% improvement in comfort with simulation training. Comments from the providers included that they liked being able to train with their equipment in their work environment and that they would like to do simulation on a regular schedule. Conclusions: Interprofessional High fidelity in-situ pediatric simulation improved pre-hospital emergency providers' comfort and confidence in caring for pediatric patients in a rural low incidence area. Repeating the simulations without the pandemic restrictions could evaluate the effectiveness of the IMIST-AMBO handover and future research could focus on the frequency of simulation to maintain the improvement in comfort and confidence. Keywords: Interprofessional Education; Simulation; Pediatric Emergencies; Quality improvement," Icahn school of medicine at Mt Sinai, virtual, (September 17, 2021).
• Human Trafficking Teaching Module
  Lab, M. (Author & Presenter), Owens, S. (Author & Presenter), Brook, J. (Author & Presenter), Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), Module with PPT and Escape Room Case Studies, "Human Trafficking," College of Health Profession, Online, (August 30, 2021).
• Oral Presentation
  Smyth, P. (Author & Presenter), DNP defense, "Improving Pediatric Resuscitation Comfort, Confidence and Teamwork in Low Volume Areas with Interprofessional In-Situ Simulation," Ferris State University, virtual, (July 23, 2021).
• Lecture
  Smyth, P., Field Agency Training, "Chronic Pain, Traditional, complementary, and integrative management," Field department of Social Work, Ferris State University, Ferris State University, (March 17, 2021).