Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing Welcomes New RN Simulation Educators and SIM Specialist

The Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) is pleased to welcome four new staff members to LHSON Simulation including: Shopha Tserotas, Melissa Malone, Amanda Callahan and Chloe Silcox.

LHSON Simulation is located in the Clinical Simulation Building at 3700 Worth Street in Dallas, Texas. Opened in 2008, the vision of LHSON Simulation is to be the synergy point for creative teaching among our faculty and students; where learning is facilitated through collaborative and cooperative processes. LHSON Simulation supports the mission of the school by assisting in the preparation of safe and effective professional nurses possessing the necessary skills and clinical judgment to provide quality, patient-centered care, through participation and engagement in a variety of simulation-based learning activities.

“This is an exciting time for our simulation program,” said Jeanne Carey, MEd, RN, CHSE-A, Director of Simulation, LHSON. “The growth of our LHSON Sim team is in keeping with the growth of both our physical space and student enrollments. Simulation is recognized as an invaluable teaching strategy in the preparation of safe, competent, and caring healthcare professionals. We are fortunate to have state-of-the-art facilities and a dedicated team of highly-skilled simulation educators.”

LHSON Simulation introduces Shopha Tserotas as the new Simulation Education Specialist. Shopha is a certified healthcare simulation educator (CHSE) and will serve as our lead sim facilitator for scenario-based, high-fidelity simulation activities. Shopha has been an RN for 21 years and has had a variety of healthcare experiences in telemetry, intermediate care and medical/surgical units, inpatient research, case management and utilization review. She has been teaching in the faculty role since 2013 teaching across the undergraduate baccalaureate curriculum. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Nursing Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her dissertation topic focuses on computer-based simulation and its impact on clinical judgment in undergraduate nursing students. She was the 2021 Mentor of the Year in her previous teaching position and has been an active member in Sigma Theta Tau.

The three new RN SIM Educators will teach in the simulation labs and will be focused on skills-based simulation. They include:
• Melissa Malone, MSN, RN, GERO-BC, NPD-BC has over 13 years of experience as a registered nurse. Her clinical experience includes time in the ICU, PCU, and PACU. Her academic experience includes over five years as a Professional Development Educator within DFW hospitals, as well as two years teaching clinical and simulation lab courses at the Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Melissa took her first-hand experience and co-authored a paper entitled, “Rapid Deployment of a Virtual Nursing Residency Program; Virtually No Idea Where to Start,” which was published in the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. Melissa is a 2009 BSN graduate of Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing and completed her MSN in Nursing Education from Western Governors University.
• Amanda Callahan, MSN, BSN has fifteen years of professional experience as a nurse with a background in various specialties, including adult intensive care, medical surgical, and pre-operative/post-anesthesia care. Amanda started Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing as an adjunct faculty in the fall of 2021, teaching both Health Assessment and Professional Nursing Practice (PNP) Labs and serving as a clinical faculty. She has an MSN in Nursing Administration from South University, Savannah, Georgia, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from South University, Savannah, Georgia and an Associate Degree of Applied Science in Nursing from Trinity Valley Community College, Athens, Texas.
• Chloe Silcox, MSN, RN, CHPN has years of nursing experience in many areas including med-surg and orthopedics and has had a recent professional focus on acute end-of-life care in an inpatient hospice setting. She has earned her certification as a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse and has used her professional experience to train nurses in end-of-life care. Her roles as a charge nurse, unit leader and nursing preceptor in each of these units has led to a passion for nursing education. Chloe is also an LHSON alum, having earned her BSN in 2014. She received an MSN in Nursing Education from the University of Texas at El Paso.