Monash team
Professor Debra Nestel
Program Lead
Debra Nestel AM PhD FAcadMEd FSSH is Professor of Simulation Education in Healthcare, Monash University, and Professor of Surgical Education, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne, Australia. She is program lead for the Graduate Programs in Clinical Simulation (Monash University) and the Graduate Programs in Surgical Education (University of Melbourne). Debra leads this national faculty development program for simulation practitioners – NHET-Sim (www.nhet-sim.edu.au). Debra also leads an international simulated patient network (www.simulatedpatientnetwork.org/). Debra’s education and research activities have three overlapping strands: simulation as an educational method; educational research in medicine and surgery; and faculty development. Debra’s research has been cited over 12K times and she has an h-index of 57. Debra has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers in health professions education and edited five books and a major reference work. In 2021, Debra received the award of Member of the Order of Australia for her service to healthcare simulation. She has received other national awards for her work in education and healthcare simulation including a Presidential Citation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Debra was founding Editor-in-Chief, Advances in Simulation (https://advancesinsimulation.biomedcentral.com) and is Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Healthcare Simulation (www.ijohs.com).
Monash University research profile
Dr Jennifer Harlim
Program Deputy Lead
Jennifer Harlim, BA(Hons) MBA PhD completed her PhD studies at RMIT University, Australia. Her research was in engineering education and professional development focusing on problem solving. Prior to and during her PhD studies, Jennifer was actively involved in several educational-based projects. After completing her studies in 2013, she worked with a team of researchers and educators at the School of Health Sciences, RMIT University. Her knowledge of learning theories and prior experience on working in educational projects contributed to the last stage of the project where the 3-D simulation game, Second Life was utilised for the training of healthcare students. She joined Monash University in early 2014 and has since been working in various healthcare simulation-based learning projects with Professor Debra Nestel. She took over the operational management for the NHET-Sim Program in 2019. She is also the Director of Operations for the Simulated Patient Network (https://www.simulatedpatientnetwork.org/). She has published in the areas of simulation-based learning, development of problem-solving skills, engineering/healthcare education and professional practice.