Nursing Leadership and Management Simulation Creating Complexity

Clinical simulation is receiving additional emphasis as nursing programs face shrinking clinical placement sites and faculty seek new teaching strategies to produce competent clinicians. Faculty members teaching a senior level Nursing Leadership and Resource Management course reviewed the current simulation literature and were unable to find any examples to replicate the complex, changing environment faced by nurses in leadership roles. Strategies already developed for creating successful scenarios were modified to develop a simulation experience that would mimic the challenges faced by a charge nurse working with the nursing care team as well as a group of patients and family members on a hospital nursing unit. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a simulation leadership and management scenario.