Background: Simulation has been well documented in the nursing literature as an effective strategy to prepare and teach students clinical based situations (Benner, Sutphen, & Day, 2010). Much of the literature addresses the implementation of simulation into nursing curriculum (Hayden, 2010) and the training of nursing faculty in the pedagogy of nursing simulation (Jeffries, 2008). However, the literature does not address how simulation can be used to train and orient new faculty to the clinical environment.

Purpose: The purpose of this simulation project was to utilize the six QSEN core competencies to create simulation templates to orient the novice clinical faculty member to the clinical environment.

Project Questions: 1) Does a simulation-based clinical nursing faculty orientation program increase self-perceived competence in the clinical nursing faculty role? 2) What are clinical nursing faculty's perceptions of a simulation-based clinical nursing faculty orientation?

Methods: The first phase of this project was to merge the QSEN competencies (Cronenwett et al., 2007) and their respective KSAs to create a template for simulation. Because the competencies are written for nurses, they needed to be adapted for nursing educators. Adapted KSAs for nurse educators were developed and scenarios were created for each of the QSEN competencies: (a) patient-centered care, (b) teamwork and collaboration, (c) evidence-based practice, (d) patient safety, (e) quality improvement, and (f) technology and informatics. The second phase was to pilot the six QSEN competency simulations on novice clinical educators.