Director of Simulation Center, School of Nursing Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Dr. Nicola Contreras began working in simulation in 2012 as a nursing faculty member, simulation educator in both academic and clinical simulation settings, faculty development specialist for those facilitating simulation in pre- and post- licensure nursing programs, and as a Director of Simulation. In 2023, she joined the University of Washington School of Nursing (SoN) and, as the Director of the Simulation Center, is responsible for assuring and aligning all simulation-based learning with simulation best practices and a competency-based education framework. In this role, she has designed curriculum, facilitated simulation-based learning experiences, and provided faculty support and education for the SoN. She has collaborated with the SoM, and other Health Professions at the University of Washington in support their individual simulation needs and as part of interprofessional simulation activities. She completed the National League for Nursing’s Leadership Institute Simulation program where she developed an interprofessional education toolkit and has earned her Certified Health Care Simulation-Advanced (CHSE-A) certification from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. She is an active member of INACSL and is the chair of the membership committee. She has presented nationally on her work describing the use of simulation to foster clinical judgement to improve program and learning outcomes and has published her work on the use of simulation for the assessment of competency.
