Partnering with Persons Living with Bipolar Disorder to Develop an Authentic Virtual Simulation

Nursing students, faculty, and community partners report a gap in the preparation of nurses to work collaboratively with persons living with mental health conditions in a variety of healthcare settings. Engaging the expertise from lived experience within undergraduate nursing education promotes a holistic approach to care that aligns with clients' real-world needs. This paper describes the steps we followed to create a virtual simulation in partnership with persons living with mental health conditions. In 4 months, a team with diverse expertise worked together to develop an open-access virtual simulation module. The process resulted in a quality product that was worth the time invested. Of importance to our team, this development project resulted in a meaningful and authentic person-centred simulation. This virtual simulation is a tool to provide scalable and meaningful experiential learning in a safe environment for students and nurses.