VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Cynthia Shum, DNP, MEd, RN, CHSE-A
Cynthia Shum, DNP, MEd, RN, CHSE-A, is the Director of Education and Operations for the Simulation Center at VAPAHCS for the past six years. In this position she is responsible for the operations of the center, facilitation of simulation activities throughout the hospital, and development of new uses for simulation activities. Dr. Shum is a part-time adjunct faculty at USF within the Masters of Science in Healthcare Simulation program. She is also faculty with the California Simulation Alliance (CSA) at HealthImpact.
Cynthia studied Faculty Development for Healthcare Simulation under the supervision of Dr. KT Waxman and obtained her DNP in the spring of 2016. She obtained her undergraduate degree in 1987 from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and a Master’s degree in Education with a focus on Measurement and Evaluation and specifically research methodologies in 1991.
Cynthia was in the initial pilot group with the Society for Simulation in healthcare (SSH) to become a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE) and then in 2015 became an advanced CHSE (CHSE-A), of which there are less than 30 worldwide. Cynthia is an instructor for the SSH CHSE certification readiness course and sits on the SSH CHSE-A sub-committee reviewing standards and offering prep workshops. She has been a reviewer for the Clinical Simulation in Nursing journal for almost seven years and started reviewing for the SSH journal last year. She is a member of the SSH nursing committee and the research committee.
Cynthia is passionate about education and she is always looking for ways to improve the delivery of content. Education needs to be fun and meaningful. Simulation is the perfect vehicle. Outside of work, Cynthia is married and the mother of three young men. She enjoys spending time with friends, scrapbooking, and baking.
