Every nurse recalls their nerves making that first intimidating, late-night phone call to an on-call physician to report

to report a critical change in a patient’s condition. Thankfully, though, they’ve already practiced. 

At UVA’s Simulation Collaborative—a now four-year-old unified effort between UVA Schools of Nursing and Medicine—clinical simulations are breaking down barriers between doctors and nurses, fostering effective communication across healthcare professions, and quieting nerves.  

Ryne Ackard, the Collaborative’s director, and an assistant professor, has seen a dramatic scale-up in simulation programming, education, and resources across his nine-year tenure. Most significant has been the union of simulation resources, a veritable army of high-tech equipment like mannequins, more than 30,000-square feet of learning space, and creative faculty and staff, and the opportunity for students from across both nursing and medicine to come together to learn using simulation in powerful ways.  

Three years ago, nursing and medical simulations were largely executed in isolation; today, after a careful and conscious effort to combine forces and improve efficiencies, it’s a different story. 

One of the students’ favorite simulations—designed for fourth-year BSN students and third-year medical students—involves a decompensating patient with sepsis. At this point in their education, both the student nurses and doctors understand their role in recognizing and responding clinically. The real learning breakthroughs in this simulation, though, happen in how they learn to share that information with one another. Students must ask each other timely questions, request and give appropriate orders, and make quick, well-informed decisions to help the patient recover. As a team. 

“They’re set up so that the different participants hold different pieces of information,” explained Ackard. “The key to solving the clinical problem is learning to ask questions and deliver important details to one another.” 

Students share more than formal simulations. Nursing and medicine’s physical buildings today host one another’s students. Between July 2024 and April 2025, 2,048 medical students’ simulation hours occurred in School of Nursing conference and classrooms, while 907 nursing students’ simulation hours took place in School of Medicine learning spaces. Closing these geographic gaps fosters interprofessional comfort and collaboration, Ackard said. 

He’s also pleased to see the relationships being built between these two tracks of students as they move through their education more in unison. “It’s great to see them recognize one another,” Ackard said. “They’ll remember working together on a previous sim, say hello, and catch up a bit.” 

It’s fertile ground that will help future nurses and physicians grow more comfortable with one another and recognize that, behind the white coats and RN badges, they share a love of learning and an aspiration to care for people.  

So, when it comes time to report a critical lab value at 3 a.m., nurses can confidently pick up the phone to relay critical details to the doctor on the other end, who will respond with needed orders. They’re primed to be collaborators.