Evaluation of a novel learning simulation for organizational leadership in environmental sustainability

With climate change increasingly recognized as a significant threat to human health, healthcare leaders are becoming crucial allies in pursuing net zero emissions. To meet the profession's learning needs the IHF-Geneva Sustainability Centre co-developed a learning simulation for healthcare leaders, which is now in use by universities and practice settings across the world.

This evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of the learning simulation and to support continuous quality improvement.

Program participants were asked to complete exit surveys involving questions concerning reactions and learning outcomes, which created an archive of participant responses. Analyses involved aggregating archival data from practice settings at the training event level for comparison. Data from higher education settings were also analyzed separately from practice settings.

A total of 278 surveys collected from across 17 training events provided usable data for this analysis. Results suggested that the simulation was consistently well received across a diversity of contexts and regions. The only group-level difference was in the debriefings, in which practice-based settings were significantly more satisfied than the university settings. In reviewing qualitative comments for improvement opportunities, primary themes related to wanting more time to play through the simulation, debrief the results, or both.

Results suggest that simulations can be an engaging and impactful means for exposing healthcare leadership to environmentally sustainable practice principles.