Designing Nursing Curricula for Competency-Based Education: The Role of Simulation Scenarios
Webinar Details
In the Essentials Competency Assessment Framework, AACN recognizes that effective assessment requires educational methodologies that support faculty in creating meaningful experiential learning opportunities. To advance this work, the AACN Assessment Expert Working Group established the Scenario Subgroup to design templates for entry- and advanced-level simulation experiences that foster learner development as described in Miller’s Pyramid. This webinar will highlight the resources, core tenets, and strategies for incorporating formative assessment through the use of these nursing practice simulation scenarios to support the development and assessment of AACN competencies.
Outcomes:
- Describe how experiential learning and formative assessment are integrated within the Essentials Competency Assessment Framework to support learner development.
- Demonstrate how to use AACN nursing practice simulation scenarios to support teaching and learning, with an emphasis on progressing learner performance along Miller’s Pyramid.
- Develop strategies for implementing nursing practice simulation scenarios to support the assessment and demonstration of AACN competencies.
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Carol F. Durham, EdD, MSN, RN, ANEF, FAAN
Professor Emeritus
University of North Carolina School of Nursing
Dr. Carol Durham is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Over her 45-year tenure, she served as Director of the Education–Innovation–Simulation Learning Environment, overseeing skill acquisition and simulation-based learning across prelicensure and graduate nursing programs. She has also held multiple leadership roles within the School of Nursing, including Faculty Chair and the Inaugural Director of Interprofessional Education & Practice.
Dr. Durham is recognized as a national and international leader in the fields of quality and safety, simulation and interprofessional education. A past President of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), she collaborated with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and other experts to establish simulation guidelines for nursing programs. As a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project, Dr. Durham’s work has had a sustained impact on preparing faculty to integrate quality, safety, and evidence-based pedagogy into their teaching.
She is a contributor to the AACN Essentials Assessment Expert Working Group and chairs the AACN Essentials Scenario Working Group, leading national efforts to integrate simulation as a methodology for coaching students to meet the AACN Essentials.
Dr. Durham continues to support prelicensure students in developing strong clinical reasoning and judgment skills through robust case-based learning and situated coaching/debriefing. She has an extensive record of publications and is frequently invited to present nationally and internationally on simulation and healthcare education.
Her contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2023 Society for Simulation in Healthcare Director of the Year, INACSL’s 2018 “Spirit of Simulation” Leadership Excellence Award, the 2017 Presidential Citation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and the 2025 DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), the National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education (ANEF), and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare Academy (FSSH).
Jennifer T. Alderman, PhD, MSN, RN, CNL, CNE, CHSE, NEA-BC
Clinical Professor & Interprofessional Education and Practice Director
UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing
Dr. Jennifer T. Alderman is a Clinical Professor and Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where she has been a faculty member for over 15 years. As Interprofessional Education and Practice (IPEP) Director of the school, she works to ensure that IPE and simulation are integrated across programs and properly leveled across the curriculum. Dr. Alderman and colleagues have presented nationally and internationally about simulation outcomes, including the impact of virtual simulation on the clinical judgment in pre-licensure nursing students. She has published in the Journal of Interprofessional Care and the Journal of Nursing Care Quality, co-authored book chapters on simulation in Quality and Safety in Nursing: A Competency Approach to Improving Outcomes (3rd ed.), Clinical Simulation in Nursing: From Conceptualization to Evaluation (3rd ed.), Reflective Practice: Reimagining Ourselves, Reimagining Nursing (3rd ed.), and
The Nexus between Nursing and Patient Safety and has given over 25 presentations at national and international conferences over the past decade. Dr. Alderman is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, American Nurses Association, North Carolina Nurses Association, and a lifetime member of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL). Dr. Alderman chaired INACSL's Membership Engagement Committee where she worked on webinars, national conference planning, and served as the inaugural season one host of the Let’s Talk Sim podcast.
Leah Burt, PhD, APRN-FPA, ANP-BC, CHSE, FAANP
Clinical Assistant Professor
Director, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program
Director of Simulation Assessment & Research, M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Laboratory
University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing
Dr. Leah Burt is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing, as well as Director of Simulation Research in the College of Nursing's M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning and Simulation Laboratory. After completing her PhD in Nursing Science with a focus on diagnostic reasoning, Dr. Burt engaged in postdoctoral training as a Fellow in Diagnostic Excellence through the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine as well as postdoctoral training in simulation education and research. She is a current Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Faculty Scholar. A Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator, Dr. Burt’s scholarship blends expertise in educational design with mixed methodology research to discover evidence-based ways to assess and enhance learner competency through innovative simulation. Dr. Burt collaborates with nurse practitioner educators across the country and her leadership has been honored with the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine’s Emerging Leader Rising Star Award, the Barbara Berger Excellence in Teaching Award, and the DAISY Faculty Award for extraordinary educational contributions.
Mindi Anderson, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, CNE, CHSOS, CHSE-A, ANEF, FSSH, FAAN
Associate Dean for Simulation and Immersive Learning
Professor
Director for Healthcare Simulation Program
University of Central Florida
Dr. Mindi Anderson is an early pioneer in healthcare simulation education who is today one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. She is the inaugural and current program director of the Healthcare Simulation graduate program at the UCF College of Nursing. Anderson’s research, which includes virtual and game-based simulation, new simulation technologies, standardized patients, interprofessional education using simulation and use of simulation in preparing students for nursing practice, has been widely published and presented both nationally and internationally. Her findings over the last 14 years have advanced nursing science and helped to establish best practices in healthcare simulation education. In addition, Anderson is part of an interdisciplinary team at UCF that has been issued two patents on advances in simulation and training.
Pricing and CE Credit
This webinar is free to deans, faculty, staff and students from AACN member schools of nursing.?All non-member audiences will be required to pay a $59 webinar fee.?
Continuing Nursing Education
One nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) credit is associated with this webinar; attendees must be present for the entire webinar and complete the evaluation to receive a certificate of completion.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.