Increasingly, nurse educators with expert simulation knowledge and strong leadership skills are needed to lead simulation program implementation and faculty development efforts. The skills necessary for simulation leadership are not all innate but need to be developed and nurtured. Nursing simulation fellowships aimed at developing expert simulation knowledge and leadership skills can be a viable pathway for developing simulation leaders to fill these roles.
We developed a one-year long immersive nursing fellowship as a solution to meet the challenge. The program's structure includes four overall objectives and seven modules with specific learning activities aimed at developing simulation expertise and leadership skills.
In a one-year period, the nursing fellow targeted nursing quality and patient safety by developing and implementing sustainable simulation-based programs, faculty development programs, and scholarly projects.
Nursing simulation fellowships provide a longitudinal guided experience for simulation expertise and leadership skill development. This approach can be a viable solution to meet the growing challenges in implementing simulation programs. This article provides a case exemplar for an innovative approach to developing simulation nurse leaders. Supporting theoretical frameworks, curriculum structure, outcome measures, and challenges are discussed.