Unique learning simulation brings together School of Nursing and College of Health Professions students

February 26, 2026

Author: Joe Schilling

A historic hurricane causes widespread flooding and knocks out the manufacturing site of the nation’s largest producer of sterile intravenous fluids. The supply chain effects are immediate – dozens of health systems grapple with the disruption and must plan for a major shortage of a precious resource that may go on for months.

A faculty member stands speaking to a group of students seated around a table with printed materials and name cards during a classroom discussion. — Audrey Roberson, Ph.D., RN, CPAN, NPD-BC interacts with students during the simulation.

The scenario above was both a reality, Hurricane Helene significantly impacted Baxter International’s North Carolina IV fluid manufacturing facility, and the topic of a recent interprofessional education simulation between graduate students of the School of Nursing and the College of Health Professions. The collaborative effort brought together students from the Doctor of Nursing Practice program and students from the Master of Health Administration program (M.H.A.) at VCU.

The first-of-its-kind simulation was spearheaded by Terry Jones, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, associate dean for graduate programs at the School of Nursing, and Kristin MacDonald, Ph.D., M.S., RD, from the College of Health Professions. “There’s historically been a degree of tension between clinical and business perspectives in health care leadership,” said Jones.

Our goal with this learning simulation was to bring these groups together to collaboratively address a health care leadership challenge and foster mutual understanding and effective teamwork.

Terry Jones, Ph.D., RN, FAAN

Students were divided into several small groups, each tasked with navigating a different facet of the crisis – from implementing new clinical protocols to optimizing inventory management to managing external communications. The half-day event was facilitated by Jones, Audrey Roberson, Ph.D., RN, CPAN, NPD-BC, and Debra Shockey, D.N.P., RN, CPNP-PC from the School of Nursing, and MacDonald and Julie Beals, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.H.A., from the College of Health Professions. Several subject-matter experts from the VCU Health System also attended the simulation and shared insights from navigating the actual crisis in 2024 and 2025.

Ultimately, the experience afforded students from different health science programs a unique environment to collaborate and bridge gaps between future clinical and non-clinical healthcare leaders. Terrie Cypress, one of the participants and a doctoral student at the School of Nursing, noted, “I thought it was a fun and engaging learning experience. It was really insightful to bring these two disciplines together to navigate a crisis. Heading into a D.N.P. role, it gave me a different perspective on what I may experience in future health care positions.”