A University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Nursing program has reached a significant milestone in its journey toward accreditation.
The simulation program has received the designation of “endorsed” for the cornerstone standards of prebriefing, debriefing, facilitation and professional integrity from the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), a professional organization dedicated to advancing the science of health care simulation.
INACSL, established in 2002, has over 2,400 members worldwide.
“The ultimate goal is to be an accredited simulation center, and we have achieved the first step—which is endorsement,” School of Nursing Director and UTC Chief Health Affairs Officer Chris Smith said. “We have to go through these steps, and when we achieve accreditation, it will be like winning the Olympics … we get the gold medal for accreditation.”
Smith explained that simulation is an educational strategy utilizing advanced technology—such as high-fidelity manikins, virtual reality and standardized patient actors—to mimic realistic clinical scenarios.
The School of Nursing has a safe hospital, a simulated operating room and primary care exam rooms set up for simulation.
“These simulations enable nursing students to practice and refine their clinical and decision-making skills in a safe, controlled environment without jeopardizing patient safety,” she said. “Through these exercises, students encounter a variety of medical situations—including emergencies, routine care and complex cases—that foster critical thinking, teamwork and technical proficiency.”
The INACSL Healthcare Simulation Standards Endorsement is for a period of three years through 2027.
“We should be in the Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building by then,” Smith said of the future home of the School of Nursing—which has an anticipated completion date of fall 2026. “At that time, we may reapply to extend our endorsement or move forward with our accreditation efforts.”
Senior Lecturer Rosebelle Peters, the simulation program coordinator, has been a longtime proponent of program accreditation.
Peters said she started looking at accreditation programs six-plus years ago—and that two solid years of data need to be collected for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare—the accrediting body. An initial path toward accreditation, though, was derailed by COVID-19.
“I’m very passionate about hands-on learning, and the feedback that I get from students is always, ‘I wish we had more simulations. This was the best experience for this semester. I could not have learned this concept or the skills that we learned if we didn’t practice it today,’” said Peters, a member of the UTC faculty since 2012. “So I just thought to myself, ‘This is so impactful and yet underrated. Nobody talks about it.’
“Because of my passion and because I wanted to address students’ wants and needs for additional simulations, I started looking at what we needed to do to grow the use of simulation. Not the space, per se, but just the simulation program itself to be sure that we were addressing our students’ learning needs.”
Why is endorsement and accreditation important?
“We have a robust program; we are doing great things and our clinical partners—they know what we do. But how about the bigger area? Being recognized is valuable,” Peters said. “They talk about simulation in health care everywhere now, so I feel this endorsement seals the deal for us and also tells us, ‘Hey, you’re doing a great job. Just keep on moving in the right direction.’
“Giving us that ribbon lets everyone know that we are committed to excellence through simulations and that we’re committed to developing practice-ready students.”
In INACSL’s notification letter of endorsement to UTC Simulation Committee Chair Rachel Nall, the association praised School of Nursing programming for “evidence of preparing, evaluating and improving simulation practice efficiently. There is evidence of a project plan to apply and communicate the standards. In addition, there was excellent evidence of curricular integration and monitoring of (simulation-based education) for continuous improvement.”
Nall, an assistant professor since 2020 and recipient of three degrees from UTC (bachelor’s degree in 2013, master’s in 2018, Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2022), directs simulation programming for nurse anesthesia students.
“This endorsement has given us some confidence that we’re doing a lot of great things,” said Nall, the simulation committee chair for the last two years. “Different programs within the School of Nursing tend to work very independently—we have undergraduate programs; we have nurse practitioner programs that are engaging in simulation, acute care and family nurse practitioner; we have nurse anesthesia. So where we were doing things in silos, this gives us an overall picture.”
Nall said the endorsement application was 300-plus pages and highlighted how the UTC program was meeting INACSL endorsement standards.
“This endorsement was more about when you are executing things, are you executing them in a way that emphasizes best practice? Are you executing them in a way that’s known to be effective to our learners?” Nall said. “The students, of course, are central to the mission of what we do. So going through this process and receiving the endorsement has been really valuable.”
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Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building
International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning
