#4: money money money

"How can I secure funding for my palliative care simulation course?"

Let us help you.

Disclaimer: we hope this blog will provide you with a good place to start and important points to consider. It cannot be all-encompassing. It is a work in progress as we learn more as a network about different funding streams and opportunities across the country.

What should you consider in terms of funding your palliative care simulation course?

1) Funding your course - potential options.

There will be different potential sources of money which you can access depending on your circumstances.

MONEY LINKED TO SITE ITSELF

If you're working for a university, there will often be a sim centre already available and the funding from your course will come from student fees. You usually can make contact with the sim centre lead and they will be able to guide you.
If you're working in a hospital (especially if this is a teaching hospital with trainees circulating through on rotation), make contact with the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) department or the Sim centre lead. The department will be given a budget each year dedicated to addressing the training needs of hospital staff. The department lead and team then decide how they choose to spread that money to fund the courses that they provide. If you're bringing a novel idea, try to meet with a senior member of the PGME team or even the Director of Medical Education and be prepared to pitch your course and explain what you are hoping to achieve, which learners you want to support and how this will ultimately improve patient care.
If you're working in a hospice, there may already be an Education Lead whom you should contact. They will have access to a budget which is focused on providing the training that hospice staff need and you can pitch your course to them. If there is no Education Lead, then consider who your intended learner group is and then approach the most senior member of that team (i.e. you want to support the IPU nurses with their tracheostomy care competencies, you would approach one of the nurse consultants or matron or Clinical Director).

MONEY LINKED TO THE TRAINING OF YOUR ATTENDEES

Trainee doctors have the clearest funding stream directly from NHS England (check re: other nations as it should be similar). Using a "Study Leave Course List" specific to the trainee's specialty/training pathway, they have course codes which sim centres/or trainees can use once a year to claim course fees back for attending mandatory and/or optional courses (simulation courses usually are considered optional). For trainee doctors in England, the course list link is: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/solutions/folders/7000047215. This is hard to explain in a blog - speak to us at PalliSim for more support.
Students usually have a clear funding stream from their university. Speak to the relevant associated sim centre for more information.
Nurses and AHPs - the situation is more complex. Their department may have a pot of money allocated to supporting their learning - this may or may not have to be applied for on an individual basis.
In some organisations, internal staff are able to book onto any internal course for free, regardless of role.

MONEY FROM OTHER SOURCES

Charitable funds - may be linked to your department, a small portion of which could be put towards an actor or necessary equipment to support the running of your course.

2) How do I pitch my course?
The person with the money wants to know how your course will address specific learning needs within a specific learner group, and why this is important to do now.

What are your course learning objectives?
How will this improve patient care (in the end)?
What evidence do you have that this training is needed?
There might be a complaint which is related to the issue you are trying to address.
Or you might have surveyed the learner group and shown that they lack confidence with a specific skill.
You might have already discussed your idea with the rest of your department and already identified other stakeholders who would support you with the course delivery.

3) Course expansion to externals
"I want to expand my course and offer it for externals to attend. What should I charge for?"
Pricing will be different depending on whether your course is high or low fidelity.
If you're working with a sim centre they will have set running costs, to pay for:

The rooms you use
The sim suite itself including manikin (if using one)
The cost of any other equipment running costs
Costs associated with any new equipment required to run your course
The availability of the sim technician throughout duration of your course
Admin costs for organising/managing attendee lists or advertising etc
Cost for an actor (if using one)
Cost of any faculty being provided for your course
All food and drink costs e.g. snacks/tea/coffee/lunch? - this may be through the sim centre or organised separately - consider whether you are providing this for just the attendees or including faculty members too?
Consider the money you might need to make from your course and the cost of your expertise.

Once you have all the costs, total them and divide by the number of attendees and that should be the rough cost per person of running your course.

Have we got a ballpark figure? Not really. Every course is different and each sim centre is different.
For example, we ran a full day palliative care simulation course using a high fidelity manikin and sim suite in Central London for palliative medicine registrars. We did not charge for faculty time as we were trainees and it was part of a simulation and education rep role for the Trainee Committee. The cost of the course, including lunch/tea/coffee for attendees and faculty, was approx. £150 - £250 per person for externals (BUT please note, we didn't charge for our faculty work/time and we were not working towards making any money ourselves and were not part of a wider organisation).

4) Other cost-saving options

Why not use a faculty member instead of an actor?
Some programmes use volunteers with lived experience to play their patients - however you then need to factor in the time to train and support those volunteers to partake safely for their sake and that of your learners.
Consider borrowing equipment from nearby centre - potentially are low/no cost
Do you really need a manikin with limbs or can you get sufficient buy-in from the learners and use a resus Annie instead

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this blog post, please email us at pallisimnetwork@gmail.com