CMS Welcomes Janice Palaganas To Its Team!

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The Center for Medical Simulation welcomes Janice Palaganas, PhDc, RN, MSN, CRNP, CEN as its newest Faculty member. Prior to joining CMS, Janice was the implementing Director of Accreditation and Certification for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and continues as a member of the Board of Review for the Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Programs.  She was previously the Chief Operations Officer and Director for Research & Development for the Medical Simulation Center at Loma Linda University.  Janice has experience as faculty for schools of nursing, public health, MBA programs, emergency medicine and medicine.  She received her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, as well as two Masters degrees as an Adult Nurse Practitioner and Geriatric Nurse Practitioner; and one Masters certificate in Home Health Management from the University of Pennsylvania.  She is currently completing her PhD in Nursing at Loma Linda University exploring healthcare simulation as a platform for interprofessional education (IPE).  Since 2008, Janice has been involved nationally and internationally researching healthcare simulation for interprofessional education and was the Meeting Chair of the 2012 Healthcare Simulation and Interprofessional Education Symposium in San Diego, CA, participating in the Invitational Meeting that brought together 22 major healthcare professional organizations to come to consensus on how healthcare simulation can be a vehicle for IPE.

Janice has extensive Emergency Department experience at multiple facilities ranging from level I trauma centers, community hospitals, and fast tracks as an Emergency Nurse, Fast Track Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Educator, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Trauma Nurse Practitioner, Manager, and Director for Emergency and Critical Care Services, as well as Legal Nurse Consultant and House Supervisor.  She has presented at conferences regarding projects in simulation and on behalf of the Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Simulation Programs.  She has been an invited keynote speaker nationally and internationally to discuss simulation, patient safety, and/or accreditation. Amongst other leadership roles, she is Chair of the Interprofessional Education Affinity Group and a member of the Certification Committee and Technology & Standards Committee in the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, as well as an author for the National League for Nursing’s (NLN) study on high-stakes assessment using simulation for nursing students.  From her work with the NLN and SSH Accreditation, Janice has a particular interest in video assessment tool development.  She is also lead editor for the upcoming textbook, “Defining Excellence in Simulation Programs.”

On a more personal note, Janice enjoys anything that comes out of her kids’ mouths, photography, digital art, charcoal and acrylic art, and dance.  She is a techie at heart. She is also a classically trained pianist and (in a former life) was a dancer, choreographer and hip-hop instructor.

Please join all of us here at CMS in welcoming Janice to our team!