IPSS: The Podcast

The Best of a Worst Case Scenario, A Pediatric Palliative Care Simulation Program for Emergency Departments with Hilary Woodward and Jessica Evins.

Jessica Evins is a Pediatric Emergency Nurse at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center and an adjunct nursing faculty at Columbia University School of Nursing. She is a strong advocate for interprofessional simulation-based training and is passionate about expanding the role of palliative care in the emergency setting. Jessica has been an invited speaker at national nursing conferences on simulation, clinical debriefing, and pediatric palliative care. Jessica was the 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse award from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing.

A Certified Child Life Specialist since 2011, Hilary Woodward joined the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein (Bronx, New York, USA) as Director of Patient and Family Programs in 2025. Previously, she was a child life specialist in the Pediatric Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at Columbia University Irving Medical Center for more than 13 years.

Hilary is the founder and director of the child life program at BASE Camp, a simulation-based training in pediatric emergency medicine for physicians, nurses, and child life specialists. In 2021, Hilary was elected to the executive board of INSPIRE (International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research, & Education). She was the first psychosocial professional ever in this role, serving two consecutive terms.

Hilary currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Child Life Professionals. She presents her work on simulation and pediatric pain management locally, nationally, and internationally. She was an adjunct faculty member at Bank Street Graduate School of Education and is a 2023 recipient of the Bank Street College Alumni Association Recognition Award.

Hilary Woodward and Jessica Evins share their insights on pediatric simulation for palliative care, emphasizing the importance of communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and tailored scenario design to improve clinician comfort and family support.

 

Key words: pediatric simulation, palliative care, healthcare communication, interdisciplinary training, medical education, simulation-based learning

 

Key topics:

-The role of child life specialists in simulation

-Designing effective pediatric palliative care scenarios

-The impact of simulation on clinician comfort and family support

-Interdisciplinary collaboration in simulation training

-Using needs assessments to tailor simulation scenarios

-The importance of psychological safety in simulation

-Expanding pediatric simulation programs across institutions

 

Takeaways

 

Simulation provides a safe space for clinicians to practice challenging conversations.

Interdisciplinary collaboration enriches simulation training and patient care.

Needs assessments help tailor scenarios to learner priorities.

Starting with lighter cases builds confidence for emotionally charged situations.

Simulation can lead to tangible outcomes like increased palliative care consults.

The community around pediatric simulation is welcoming and collaborative.

Small wins in simulation, like improved communication, have lasting impacts.

Simulation helps clinicians be present and empathetic during real patient interactions.

 

"Simulation gives us space to engage differently."

"Small wins in simulation stay with us."

"Communication is a skill, like IV insertion."

 

If any of our listeners want a copy of one of Jessica and Hilary’s simulation cases email us at:

ipssthepodcast@gmail.com and we will send you a copy!

 

Chapters

 

00:00 Introduction to Pediatric Simulation and Palliative Care

00:24 Meet the Speakers: Hilary Woodward and Jessica Evins

00:41 How Hilary and Jessica Got Started in Simulation

01:05 Designing Effective Pediatric Palliative Care Scenarios

01:31 Using Needs Assessments to Guide Scenario Development

01:54 Building Psychological Safety in Simulation

02:10 Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Simulation Training

02:13 Impact of Simulation on Clinician Confidence and Family Support

02:43 Expanding Pediatric Simulation Programs Across Hospitals

03:13 Lessons Learned and Future Directions in Pediatric Simulation

In this episode, Erin Carn-Bennett hosts and interviews Dr Erin Kritz and Anne Jeffers from Texas Children's Hospital share their innovative rapid response system, rapid response workshop simulation training approaches, and insights into improving pediatric resuscitation and safety culture.

 

Anne Jeffers is an Assistant Professor with Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner in the pediatric ICU at Texas Children's Hospital as well as the Associate Medical Director for the Rapid Response System and (imminently assuming the role of) Associate Medical Director of Simulation for the pediatric ICU at Texas Children's Hospital. 

 

Erin Kritz is an Assistant Professor with Baylor College of Medicine and is a pediatric cardiac intensivist as well as the Medical Director for the Rapid Response System at Texas Children's Hospital. She is also the co-chair of the hospital system's CPR committee. She has extensive expertise in pediatric emergency response systems and events, quality improvement, and patient safety. 

 

The Texas Children's Hospital rapid response system covers 4 hospital campuses and approximately 1300 Rapid Response Team events (separate from code activations) annually. As Texas Children's Hospital is the largest pediatric health system in the United States, it is also one of the largest pediatric rapid response systems worldwide. The rapid response workshop was initially created about 10 years ago by Dr. Aarti Bavare and nurse practitioner Jenilea Thomas as a way to provide dynamic, multidisciplinary training in pediatric rapid response.

 

A large part of the workshop is two high fidelity, high risk low frequency event simulations, as well as a low fidelity communications focused simulation. What makes it particularly effective is that it is for both callers and responders and puts participants in both roles, allowing everyone to experience the challenges of both sides of keeping decompensating patients safe.

 

In recent years, Anne and Erin have further adapted the workshop for specific patient populations that may present differently, such as a neutropenic oncology patient who may not mount a fever in the setting of severe infection. At the WFPICCS pre conference workshop 26th September 2026 Anne and Erin are taking the knowledge and experience acquired over the years and have created a 'train the trainer' workshop where healthcare professionals from all disciplines can learn how to create or improve existing rapid response systems from the ground up. 

 

Attendees to the WFPICCS workshop should prepare to be intellectually challenged and learn about a new and innovative simulation approach that rewrites traditional simulation rules and has impressive clinical, cultural and organizational data impacts.

 

IPSS is incredibly proud to have hosted work on the Rapid Response Workshop at Rome IPSSW May 2026 and have been a part of the story to support Erin and Anne on this ongoing and evolving innovation journey.

 

The Rapid Response Workshop meets a huge educational need-training code response teams alongside ward clinical staff. The outcomes speak for themselves clinically, organizationally and culturally. Not only do they not avoid bias of different department clinical staff members, they lean into it respectfully, use it to aid building psychological safety for participants in their course with light humor.

 

The data captured so far backs up transforming mindsets, improving clinical competence, confidence and patient safety.

 

As experienced simulationists, yet new International Pediatric Simulation Society (IPSS) members and IPSSW attendees since 2024, Erin and Anne share key insights into why you should join IPSS and what they have noticed as new members to our international pediatric simulation community!

 

Keywords: pediatric resuscitation, rapid response, simulation training, safety culture, healthcare education, pediatric ICU, CPR coaching, interdepartmental simulation, Texas Children's Hospital, WFPICCS 2026 Melbourne Australia.

 

Sign up to attend Erin and Anne’s workshop at WFPICCS 2026 here!

 

https://www.wfpiccs2026intensivecareasm.com/workshops/

 

W11 on Saturday, September 26 2026

 

Key  topics

 

Rapid response system development and evolution

Simulation training for crisis resource management

Role of CPR coaches in resuscitation

Interdepartmental simulation and culture change

Data and outcomes of simulation-based interventions

Training strategies for low-resource settings

Global collaboration and knowledge sharing in pediatric care

 

Key Quotes:

 

"Everyone supports and lifts each other up" (IPSS)

 

"Training made us recognize sick patients earlier"

 

"CPR coach as a metric of high-quality CPR"

 

Chapters

 

00:00 Introduction to Erin and Anne's work at Texas Children's

 

01:25 Background of Erin Kritz and Anne Jeffers

 

03:44 Getting into simulation: personal stories and motivations

 

05:00 The role of simulation in emergency response training

 

08:58 How IPSS influenced their work and collaboration

 

14:25 Overview of the rapid response workshop and training program

 

20:30 Impact and outcomes of simulation training on patient safety

 

23:48 Adapting training for different hospital systems and needs

 

29:54 Upcoming presentation at WFPICCS Melbourne

 

32:40 Framework and roles of CPR coaches in practice

 

40:26 Quality control and role of CPR coaches during resuscitation

 

43:27 Future directions and global collaboration in pediatric critical careResources

 

World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS) - https://wfpicc.org/

 

Texas Children's Hospital - https://www.texaschildrens.org/

 

Subscribe and share to keep up with more insightful conversations on pediatric simulation across the globe. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help others discover this important content from IPSS: The Podcast!

 

This podcast was made possible by the IPSS Podcast Subcommittee. 

 

Follow us on Instragram @ipss_global 

 

Join us in advancing healthcare simulation globally—your next opportunity begins here!

 

https://www.wfpiccs2026intensivecareasm.com/workshops/

In this episode, we explore how innovative simulation tools like Emergo can revolutionize disaster response training for healthcare teams. Featuring insights from Audrey Morel, director of the CHUM Simulation Center, we discuss how gamified simulation enhances team coordination, communication, and decision-making during mass casualty incidents.

Subscribe and share to keep up with more insightful conversations on pediatric simulation across the globe. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help others discover this important content from IPSS: The Podcast!

This podcast was made possible by the IPSS Podcast Subcommittee. 

Follow us on Instragram @ipss_global 

Join us in advancing healthcare simulation globally—your next opportunity begins here!

Join us for the first episode in Urdu as Jabeen Fayyaz, IPSS President, interviews Dr. Saba Laila, an INSPIRE-IPSS fellow about simulation in Pakistan. 

Bio - Dr.Saba Laila serves as the Head of Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Indus Hospital and Health Network, Karachi, Pakistan. She is also the Program Director of Foundation Program of Pediatric Medicine, which is a novel program in the country, introducing simulation -based one year program. She has a passion of training life saving resuscitation workshops and is an AHA instructor for BLS, PALS and ACLS. She is the IPSS-INSPIRE simulation fellow. Her area of interest is disaster management and is the Chair of Hospital's Emergency Response Committee She has a keen interest in developing PEM psychomotor competencies and leadership. She is the Supervisor of College of Physicians and Surgeon Pakistan.

 

Subscribe and share to keep up with more insightful conversations on pediatric simulation across the globe. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help others discover this important content from IPSS: The Podcast!

This podcast was made possible by the IPSS Podcast Subcommittee. 

Follow us on Instragram @ipss_global 

Join us in advancing healthcare simulation globally—your next opportunity begins here!

In this episode, Christine and Ingrid explore how extended reality, including virtual and augmented reality, can support caregiver training. Keith Widmeier and Amanda  Manzi share their work developing an XR based training platform to reinforce emergency care skills for caregivers of children with tracheostomies and ventilator dependence.

Subscribe and share to keep up with more insightful conversations on pediatric simulation across the globe. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help others discover this important content from IPSS: The Podcast!

This podcast was made possible by the IPSS Podcast Subcommittee. 

Follow us on Instragram @ipss_global 

Join us in advancing healthcare simulation globally—your next opportunity begins here!