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What does it take to build safer clinicians, not just better test takers? We sit down with pediatric critical care pioneer and simulation leader Tonya Schneidereith to trace a career defined by curiosity, courage, and a relentless focus on patient safety. From early days as one of the first PICU nurse practitioners in the country to associate director of simulation at Johns Hopkins, Tonya reveals how mentorship, research, and design thinking shaped her approach to teaching and assessment.
We dig into her medication safety work using Google Glass to capture the learner’s point of view, exposing why accurate math still leads to dangerous IV pump programming when context is missing. That insight led to national recommendations on verifying dosage calculation competence and a sharper focus on debriefing. Tanya shares a memorable morphine case where most learners turned up oxygen as ventilation failed, and how a single probing question in debrief uncovered the real driver behind a “correct” action. The lesson is clear: simulation must illuminate decision-making, not just outcomes.
Tonya also opens the doors to SIMPL Simulation, the consultancy she co-founded to elevate faculty development, program design, and simulation operations. She walks us through a bold project with BSA LifeStructures and Wake Tech Community College: a true simulation hospital spanning EMS arrival, diagnostics, acute care rooms, an operating room, and a live MRI. It’s a blueprint for interprofessional education that makes teamwork the default. We then explore responsible AI in healthcare simulation, drawing on a new white paper Tonya helped shape. Ethical integration, transparent limits, and scenario design that builds judgment are essential as AI becomes part of daily clinical work.
If you care about better debriefing, safer medication practices, AI in nursing education, and simulation spaces that teach as powerfully as people do, this conversation will sharpen your approach. Listen, share with your team, and tell us the one change you’ll make in your next sim. Subscribe for more expert stories and leave a review to help others find the show.

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