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School of Nursing faculty Michelle Higgins, DNP, RN, and Jayne Smitten, Ph.D., M.Ed., CHSE-A, FSSH, present at the Asia Pacific S3 Conference in Singapore.
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Opening ceremony of the 2025 Asia Pacific S3 Conference in Singapore.
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Michelle Higgins, DNP, RN, taking part in a virtual reality demo.
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Jayne Smitten, Ph.D., M.Ed., CHSE-A, FSSH, participating in simulation exercise exhibit.
Hawai‘i Pacific University professors Michelle Higgins, DNP, RN, and Jayne Smitten, Ph.D., M.Ed., CHSE-A, FSSH, delivered an immersive, impactful, and inspirational healthcare simulation workshop to more than 50 nursing and related healthcare discipline delegates at the Asia Pacific S3 Conference held in late 2025 at Academia, SingHealth, in Singapore.
The S3 conference—representing SingHealth, the Society for Simulation in Europe (SESAM), and SimGHOSTS—brought together global leaders, faculty, staff, and state-of-the-art simulation vendors for a tri‑annual gathering with record-breaking attendance.
Higgins, a professor of nursing, and Smitten, a professor of public health, presented an innovative debriefing evidence-based workshop titled “Terrifying Your Learners… Intervention: Debriefing Tools, But Which Ones and Why?” Debriefing, the focus of the simulation workshop and known as the heart and soul for successful simulation-based education, generated meaningful and cathartic teaching and learning moments. Participants shared real-time challenges and solutions in debriefing.
Evaluation feedback from the workshop emphasized the need for cultural understanding, tele-education exchanges, and future cross-ocean collaborative research opportunities. The conference further fueled collaborative simulation-based education opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region—already underway— including advocating for evidence-based healthcare simulation education with a particular emphasis on remote and rural healthcare areas of population health needs.
Higgins and Smitten were also honored to be invited on a personal tour of the first and largest Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) fully accredited simulation center in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Smitten—team lead for the SSH accreditation team that evaluated SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Medical Simulation (SIMS), leading to its full accreditation—toured the entire simulation center and experienced healthcare simulation programs in action. The exemplary SIMS accreditation revealed excellence in Core Simulation Standards plus ARTS (Assessment, Research, Teaching/Education, Systems Integration), as well as Fellowship and Human Simulation accreditation. SIMS is a comprehensive simulation center of excellence focusing on cost-effectiveness, health equity, and patient-safety innovations, pushing frontiers for better care outcomes. SIMS’s position as an international leader emphasizes the future of the accreditation pathway for simulation centers worldwide.
Looking ahead to furthering advocacy, law, and health policy advancements based on the “Global Consensus Statement on Simulation-based Practice in Healthcare, ” a significant document crafted by healthcare professionals from 67 countries and threaded throughout the S3 conference, Higgins and Smitten continue their advocacy leadership journey towards impactful debriefing simulation education.
“We were grateful to be a part of this inspiring S3 conference,” Smitten said. “With the advancement of technical adaptation in healthcare discipline education, the focus remained on worldwide education and research efforts to improve patient care and safety, healthcare equity, and cost-effectiveness. Our future simulation-based education debriefing efforts will be critical toward advancing well-trained healthcare professionals—impacting quality healthcare and future sustainability in our Hawaiian Islands.”
