Summary5 min read

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Summary

Episode: The Evolving Role of Simulation in Healthcare Education and Workforce Development, and Why it Matters

Date: April 2, 2026
Host: Brian Zimmerman (A)
Guest: Samantha Smeltzer (B), VP of Simulation at Orbis Education

Episode Overview

This episode examines how simulation-based education is transforming nursing education and workforce development. Guest Samantha Smeltzer draws from her years of clinical and educational experience to discuss why simulation is becoming essential for nursing programs, how it serves health systems facing recruitment and retention challenges, and its unique value in promoting patient safety and clinical readiness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Samantha Smeltzer’s Background and Perspective

[00:40–02:00]
- Sam is a practicing nurse and VP of Simulation at Orbis Education.
- She manages simulation programs across multiple sites, focusing on everything from building simulation centers to training staff and occasional hands-on sessions.
- "I fell in love with how it helps with students progress, become safe in the clinical practice and I've been doing that ever since with education."
  —Samantha Smeltzer, [01:21]

2. The Vital Role of Simulation in Nursing Readiness

[02:00–04:18]
- Simulation bridges gaps left by dwindling and limited clinical rotation opportunities.
- It gives students a safe environment to fail, learn, and develop confidence, ensuring they’re able to apply theoretical knowledge in practical scenarios.
- "Simulation bridges that gap. It provides students a safe area to fail and not kill a patient... So when they do make learning opportunities, you know, otherwise known as mistakes, they learn from those."
  —Smeltzer, [03:18]

3. Simulation Offers Experiences Traditional Clinicals Often Can’t

[04:18–05:17]
- Inconsistent clinical experiences (e.g., in OB rotations) mean some students never encounter key events in the field.
- Simulation can replicate rare or critical situations—like postpartum hemorrhages—enabling vital hands-on critical thinking practice.
- "We can translate that into simulation. So they can see a postpartum hemorrhage or they can see a critical event, and now they have some critical thinking applied to it."
  —Smeltzer, [04:50]

4. Supporting Recruitment and Retention With Simulation

[05:17–07:56]
- Simulation can be leveraged in recruitment: instead of relying on GPA or references, organizations can assess clinical thinking and skills directly.
- “Senior send-off” programs where nurse managers and recruiters observe students in simulated scenarios can lead to on-the-spot hiring and enhanced student-organization connection.
- "They see the students in action, they do interviews at that time. ...I see what you can do in a simulation lab and then they talk and they have that understanding and then they get hired on the spot."
  —Smeltzer, [06:41]

5. Enhancing Retention and Transition to Practice

[07:56–09:23]
- Early relationship-building between students and future employers (e.g., through shadowing or simulation-based interviews) can reduce transitional shock and improve retention.
- Collaborative work between nursing schools and health systems is vital for smoother nurse onboarding and transition.

6. Addressing Patient Safety and the Limits of Traditional Clinicals

[09:23–11:27]
- Traditional clinicals are inconsistent and sometimes prohibit students from performing necessary tasks.
- Simulation reliably exposes students to high-risk, low-frequency events and ensures experience with critical skills.
- "Clinical rotations depend on what happens on the unit that day. So if it's a slow unit or quiet unit, they may not have the opportunity to see those halo events. ...Simulation can mimic. Right, because we can mimic a rapid response situation or a medical error or a code, something high stakes."
  —Smeltzer, [10:09]

7. Debriefing: The Cornerstone of Simulation Learning

[11:41–12:29]
- The debriefing process is emphasized as key to helping students process events, learn from mistakes, and build lasting recall and competence.
- "We learn by doing. We learn by calling on past events. So again, if we can do this in a safe environment... that's the learning moment for simulation."
  —Smeltzer, [12:03]

8. Calls for More Collaboration and Residency Integration

[12:39–13:19]
- Smeltzer urges closer partnerships between hospitals and nursing schools, using simulation to lighten the ‘heavy lift’ of nurse residency and better prepare students for their first six weeks.
- "I think that's the key missing piece... the collaborations with healthcare partnerships and schools of nursing and I think that's something that we can focus on and when the students graduate they are more practice ready than what we had had in the past."
  —Smeltzer, [13:08]

Memorable Quotes

"Simulation bridges that gap. It provides students a safe area to fail and not kill a patient."
—Samantha Smeltzer [03:18]
"We can translate that into simulation. ...They can see a postpartum hemorrhage or they can see a critical event, and now they have some critical thinking applied to it."
—Smeltzer [04:50]
"They see the students in action, they do interviews at that time. ...I see what you can do in a simulation lab and then they talk and they have that understanding and then they get hired on the spot."
—Smeltzer [06:41]
"Clinical rotations depend on what happens on the unit that day. ...Simulation can mimic. ...we can mimic a rapid response situation or a medical error or a code, something high stakes."
—Smeltzer [10:09]
"If we can do this in a safe environment where students can feel safe to practice at their age or their capabilities and then come back to debrief this, that's the learning moment for simulation."
—Smeltzer [12:03]

Key Timestamps

00:40 — Sam’s background and Orbis Education role
02:00 — Simulation as a bridge to practice readiness
04:18 — Real-world gaps simulation fills; OB rotation example
05:37 — Simulation in recruiting, “senior send-off” model
07:56 — Simulation and nurse retention, transition shocks
09:51 — Clinical limitations vs. simulation; exposure to critical events
11:41 — Importance of debriefing in simulation
12:39 — Call for stronger education-health system collaborations

Summary

This episode provides an insightful look at the rapidly growing role of simulation in nurse education, with Samantha Smeltzer offering actionable advice and showcasing innovative recruitment initiatives. The conversation highlights the numerous benefits—confidence building, patient safety advances, recruitment support, and a smoother transition to bedside care—while urging stronger collaborations between educators and healthcare institutions to best serve both students and workforce needs.

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Transcript21 lines

[00:00]
A
Hi everyone, this is Brian Zimmerman with Beckers Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning into the Beckers Healthcare podcast. Today we're going to talk about the evolving role of simulation in healthcare education and workforce development and why it matters for leaders focused on clinical readiness, patient safety and long term staffing strategy. Joining me for this discussion is Samantha Smeltzer, VP of Simulation at Orbis Education. Sam, thank you for being here today.
[00:27]
B
Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:29]
A
And to get us started, can you just share a bit more about yourself, the work you're doing right now, your professional journey, whatever you think is will best help listeners sort of appreciate your perspective as we move through the conversation today.
[00:40]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So first and foremost, I'm a nurse. I still practice clinically at a local hospital where I live. I started my nursing career with second career about 20 years ago, so I'm dating myself a little bit, but did that was a med surg PCU nurse, fell into the education path about six years into it and with that simulation came on board, took my first class at simulation with Dr. Donna McDermott. She was one of the instrumental simulationists of her time, creating the standards of best practice, the pre briefing standard, and just fell in love with simulation. I fell in love with how it helps with students progress, become safe in the clinical practice and I've been doing that ever since with education. With Orbis Education, I was a sim coordinator for a partner of ours and quickly rose the ranks of Vice president of Simulation. My day to day role is kind of cool. It's very unique in the simulation world because I don't attach myself to a single site. I work with all of our sites within the Orbis partnership, from building a new SimCenter site, to getting equipment, finding the best pieces for the curriculum, to teaching and educating the staff and sometimes popping in to do simulation when there's a need.
[02:00]
A
Excellent. Well, wonderful to hear that background. And let's get right into sort of the simulation component here, what we're here to discuss. And of course that is becoming an even bigger part of the conversation when it comes to nursing education today. So specifically from where you sit, from your experience, can you, can you expand on what role simulation has in preparing graduates for the reality of clinical practice? You touched on that a bit in your intro, but can you unpack some additional details there? And why is this so pertinent now? Why is this such a hot topic right now for health system leaders as they think about nursing and getting nurses ready?
[02:39]
B
I think simulation plays a huge part in getting a quote, unquote practice writing nurse we're seeing a transition where there's less clinical sites from hospital settings to have nurses they've learned in didactic or theory to translate into practice. Due to a lot of students, hospitals actually putting some regulations on nursing students on what they can and cannot do. So when students graduate, yes, they graduated, they pass the state board of nursing, but are they ready? Have they done the skill sets in a hospital setting? We're finding out that a lot of that is a no they were doing. And where do we find the students to be confident in their skill sets? They know it by knowledge, but can they actually practice with it? And simulation bridges that gap. It provides students a safe area to fail and not kill a patient. Right. So that's the biggest thing we want to make sure our students are safe to practice. So when they do make learning opportunities, you know, otherwise known as mistakes, they learn from those. And they could take those pearls, they learn in simulation and lab and translate that into practice. So if they haven't done it in a real life clinical setting, they've done it in simulation. And they can see the as faculty, we can see where the students may miss that gap, that frame of why they did the thing they did. And then we can kind of circle back to it and make sure they understand the importance of doing processes, skills safely give them confidence. So when they're actually in the clinical floor as a nurse, they have those tools in their toolbox.
[04:19]
A
Yeah. And I imagine that confidence component specifically is hugely important here. Right. The stakes are incredibly high. And if they've gone through it in simulation, at least they have that in their back pocket, like, hey, I know how to avoid xyz.
[04:32]
B
Yeah. And I think that's a huge point because again, like with clinical spaces, it's uneven. You might have a great. I use an example of ob. You know, the goal of OB is maybe to say a birth or some kind of critical event, but we never want to see that happen. So they could go through 12 hours of a OB clinical without seeing a thing. No births, because again, we can't schedule births. You know, it's nature's way of deciding what happens. So if they go into an OB floor, they may never seen those things. They may have learned about it, but they're not seeing it in practice. Well, we can translate that into simulation. So they can see a postpartum hemorrhage or they can see a critical event, and now they have some critical thinking applied to it. So they can actually use those skills to help keep Patients safe.
[05:17]
A
Yeah, it's a great point. And thinking here now specific about, you know, some of the recruitment and retention challenges that are well documented for health systems. How can nursing education programs play perhaps a more active role in helping hospitals connect with and sort of evaluate those practice ready graduates?
[05:37]
B
I think here one of the things I think we don't use enough is a simulation to showcase our students learning and their critical thinking aspect of it. One of the key indicators that I see is we rely on GPAs, we rely on good referrals or applications, but can we know the nurse is actually ready to practice? And I think that we're missing that opportunity. It's no more like you sit in an interview and you have these behavioral questions, but can they actually do the work? And I think that we as institution can play a huge part of that when we go into do work fairs or understand that maybe showcasing our students in that light that they actually, you know, can do those critical thinking practice ready skill sets that we want to see maybe at just a snapshot in time so they know that they're getting quality care nurses. I think we could highlight that a lot more. For example, one of my partners are doing that already. They're calling, it's a senior send off. To be quite honest, I think it's an amazing program. They work with healthcare organizations locally and they bring in nurse managers, recruiters and the students do simulation and they ask. The simulation kind of highlights their critical thinking, where they're at in the program. They're getting ready to graduate. So we want to see some, you know, higher level skill thinking and applications. And the feedback that we're getting from that situation is amazing. Recruiters love it. They see the students in action, they do interviews at that time. There's, you know, been documented cases that students do the simulation. They meet with recruiters and charge nurses and they have that dialogue where if I was a charge nurse I can talk to that, that students say here, here's what a med search floor looks like. Here's what an OB floor looks like. I see what you can do in a simulation lab and then they talk and they have that understanding and then they get hired on the spot. I think we need to do more of that. I think we need to more hands on, see the visual visualization of our students actually performing the work, you know, because again, going back to clinical, they may not see the nurse managers or the recruiters because everyone's busy, right? They're doing multitasking jobs. And I think having the recruiters and Charge nurses coming to us, we can showcase our students in a much better light and showcase that practice readiness that we're looking for.
[07:57]
A
Yeah. And it's, it's easy to hear about how, how that's better for recruiters and, and, and the organizations. But I also imagine it's, it's a great experience for the students too. The nurses. Right. Coming out, like, especially if they get a job out of this situation, they're going to have a better connection to the organization that's employing them, correct?
[08:15]
B
Oh, absolutely. I mean, how cool would it be? You know, I think back from my career, I met the nurse manager the day one. Right. She interviewed me for maybe 15 minutes. And then, you know, I met her on my first day of orientation. But not knowing what the floor was on, I kind of understand a little bit. But being immersed with that or even say, hey, have that conversation with that nurse manager is like, why don't you shadow one of my nurses to see what the floor looks like? Being able to have that opportunity, I think is, is instrumental in wanting the students to come in and actually retain them. I think that's a huge thing too. Like we can hire all the nurses, but the key is actually the next step is retention. Right. Because nurses have like a transitional shock, what they think they know and then going into practice. I think that's something that we as healthcare providers, organizations and nursing schools can help ease that transition. Maybe working with the healthcare organizations of like, what's your residency look like, what kind of things we could do in the last, you know, 12 weeks or six weeks of nursing school to kind of ease the students into that hospital system, I think would be very important.
[09:23]
A
Sure. For a leader. Sam, listening to this, who is really prioritizing patient safety right now? What would you want them to help them understand about the limits of, say, traditional nursing education and how simulation sort of overcomes some of the limits of those models? I think our entire conversation today is kind of getting at this, but any other specific call outs in terms of how simulation gets beyond some of those past limitations?
[09:51]
B
Yeah, I imagine if you're a C suite looking for patient safety quality metrics and institutional risk, it helps to recognize the uncomfortable truth with clinicals in person. Nursing schools have direct clinical care. It's the golden egg of nursing schools. But we need to understand that it's uneven. Clinical rotations depend on what happens on the unit that day. So if it's a slow unit or quiet unit, they may not have the opportunity to see those halo events. A high risk, low Opportunity situations that will challenge the nursing students to at least maybe observe a systematic process like a code. You know, a code is a controlled chaos, but if they've never witnessed it in real life, person, you know, real life, they can be so shocked and not follow through what they learn through traditional education. So having those things with a traditional education simulation can mimic. Right, because we can mimic a rapid response situation or a medical error or a code, something high stakes. Right. So students can do this, make those learning opportunities in simulation, and then take those pearls and apply it to practice. Right. I think because of the unequalness of clinical spots, you know, I think that's a challenge for our students. Plus, again, the limitations that the hospitals put on the students, depending on the regulatory status, they may not let students actually do some skill sets like a glucose check. So again, they're kind of limiting the nurses on what to do. And I think we need to have pull that in and pull in simulation so they at least have that exposure to it.
[11:28]
A
For sure. I think it's a, it's a great call out in terms of helping them get ready for when those moments happen. You don't kind of, I guess, for lack of a better term, freeze up or not be able to draw on what you, what you've, what you've come to know in your education, right?
[11:41]
B
Absolutely. And I think the biggest part of a simulation, it's always been debriefing. You know, when you have this serious halo event coming back to the room to debrief it, to have that expertise of that facilitator, walk through the student's thoughts processes, find out where the opportunities for change can happen, and then repeat it if they, if they can't. Because again, that's why we learn. We learn by doing. We learn by calling on past events. So again, if we can do this in a safe environment where students can feel safe to practice at their age or their capabilities and then come back to debrief this, that's the learning moment for simulation. And that's what's going to take them and recall back when they're actually in that situation in a clinical area or when they become, you know, practicing clinician for sure.
[12:30]
A
Before I let you go, Sam, is there anything we didn't cover today that you think deserves more attention in this conversation? Or perhaps I'll leave it to you, maybe it's something you want to reemphasize before I let you go.
[12:39]
B
I would really think that we need to go back to look at the basics, you know, look at the nurse residency programs, see how hospitals can work with the schools of nursing in their area to see what, what we could do to kind of pull off that heavy lift of residency. What can we pull into the senior immersion that they can take away and become more prepared for that senior first six weeks of nursing? I think that would be something that I would love to see more collaboration on. I think that's the key missing piece in my opinion is the collaborations with healthcare partnerships and schools of nursing and I think that's something that we can focus on and when the students graduate they are more practice ready than what we had had in the past.
[13:20]
A
A great place to leave the conversation. Sam, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
[13:25]
B
Thank you for having me.
[13:26]
A
We also want to thank our podcast sponsor Orbis Education. You can tune to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page@beckershospitalreview.com.