June 16, 2021By Lindsey Nolen

Stand Out with Master’s Degree in Healthcare Simulation from Drexel Online

To prepare learners for careers in healthcare simulation or nursing simulation, Drexel University has developed a new dual online master’s in simulation degree program. One track is dedicated to obtaining a master’s in healthcare simulation, and the other results in a master’s of science in nursing simulation. Both curriculums are designed to help ensure that learners are familiar with the tools, practices and procedures they will encounter in the field. Through these programs, learners will be able to transfer the skills they harness throughout the curriculum to careers in the clinical environment, clinical teaching or the classroom. Here, HealthySimulation.com’s Content Director Lindsey Nolen interviews the Track Director of the program for an exclusive look at the clinical simulation master’s degree programs from Drexel Online.

Kate J. Morse, PhD, MSN, RN, ACNP-Ret, the Assistant Dean of Experiential Learning and Innovation and Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University, currently serves as the track director for the master’s in simulation programs. Now open for enrollment, she explained that these programs came about based on the need for more comprehensive instruction in a field that has grown exponentially over the past two decades.

“Part of that trajectory is not only the increase in the use of simulation in the academic space, but the more tightly coupling of simulation in the professional healthcare space. [Healthcare simulation] is getting woven into quality and safety programs and it is being looked at as a solution to problems, versus solely an educational intervention. We wanted to connect to that skill set,” Morse said. “For example, some of the required courses include quality and safety and healthcare, the science of safety, human factors, and systems thinking, creating a culture of safety because we are doing all of this collectively so at the end of the day we have safer healthcare.”


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Morse added that by connecting the theories of simulation, the educational theories of simulation design, and more, this creates psychological safety and helps learners be able to connect this to quality and safety. She explained that those who work in a sim center connected to a hospital system are often conducting embedded or in-situ simulation. Thus, they must come to understand how they can leverage that around quality and safety.

“We hope to recruit interprofessional students and the quality and safety degree is an interprofessional degree. We share courses with the quality and safety program in the college,” Morse said. “It’s designed so that it will meet the needs of a nurse, who’s going to be an educator in simulation, and those who are interested in being an educator in simulation and cross into quality and safety; the professional side of simulation versus the pre-licensure academic side.”

She believes the difference between this program and others is the connection to quality and safety. When Morse’s team looked at other existing programs across the United States, they found that they were either solely nursing-focused or solely medical simulation-focused. Morse and her colleagues therefore sought to create a melding of the two foci to foster learners with a solid grounding in human factors and quality and systems testing.

“Everyone is concerned with the same thing at the end of the day; they want to be better clinicians, give better patient care, solve problems and help people. It’s this common language, no matter whether you’re in Hong Kong, Australia or New Zealand or Germany, that’s the thread of people being passionate about how they can better take care of patients,” Morse said. “These master’s programs are an amazing pathway to get there and how we can use them to teach and help learners get there faster.”


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The program is divided into four 10-week quarters per year (as opposed to the traditional two-semester system), giving learners the ability to take more courses in a shorter time period. One semester’s credit is equivalent to 1.5 quarter credits, and graduate students who utilize student loans (FAFSA) must maintain a minimum enrollment of 4.5 credits per term.

For admittance into this healthcare simulation master’s degree program, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in any health-related field with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. Those who are currently a nurse, hold RN licensure, and have earned an undergraduate or graduate degree in nursing are alternatively eligible to apply for Drexel’s online MSN in Healthcare Simulation.



“We’re also looking at getting a post-baccalaureate certificate approved. If people don’t want to get a master’s, if they have a master’s in something else but they want to get a deeper dive into simulation, we are going through the approval process for the post-baccalaureate certificate program, which will be 13 and a half credits,” Morse shared.

More About Drexel University

Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Drexel University Online offers quality internet-based higher education, including 140+ fully-accredited master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and certificate programs. Since 1891, the university has built a reputation for educating some of the most innovative and forward-thinking students in the country and around the world.

At Drexel, the faculty are a mix of full-time professors and current industry leaders, all with years of experience in their fields. Members of Drexel’s faculty have started biotech companies, conducted research on the neuroscience of learning, served in the military and even worked on Supreme Court cases. They bring this diverse and far-reaching experience to the classroom, infusing their courses with real-world experience to ensure students are learning what really matters in their career.

Online students learn from the same faculty as their peers on campus, meaning they have access to some of the brightest minds in the country, no matter where they are located. Each program is designed for professionals who want to complete their education without compromising quality for convenience. Ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the “Best Online Graduate Programs” in the fields of business administration, engineering, nursing, and library science, Drexel’s online programs are among the elite in the nation.

Learn More About Drexel University’s MS in Healthcare Simulation Degree Program


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