Mindi Anderson, an associate professor at the UCF College of Nursing, was recently inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Anderson was selected for her significant contributions over the past decade to advance nursing education through simulation best practices. She is one of 195 distinguished nurse leaders in the 2018 class of fellows. Academy fellows include leaders in hospitals, government, academia and the scientific community and represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 29 countries. The inductees were honored Nov. 3 during a ceremony at the academy’s annual policy conference in Washington.
“In my more than 15 years of experience in simulation, Dr. Anderson is among the most effective and innovative educators that I have had the pleasure of seeing in action,” said Judy LeFlore, associate dean for simulation and technology at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation. “She has developed the learning efficiencies of simulation across student and provider levels, and recently begun documenting its role in improving patient safety and care outcomes.”
An educator for 18 years, Anderson was an early pioneer in the adoption of simulation in healthcare academic settings. Her research in the field has been widely published and presented both nationally and internationally. She is one of 35 advanced certified healthcare-simulation educators in the world – three are on faculty at the college.
Anderson joined UCF in 2015 and serves as director of the Nursing and Healthcare Simulation Program. She is also a fellow of the National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education, and a longstanding member of both the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation & Learning, which recently honored her with an Excellence in Academia Award.
Earlier this year, Anderson was one of 56 nurse educators selected to participate in the highly competitive LEAD program from the National League for Nursing to mentor and develop effective nurse leaders. In fall 2017, she was awarded a Fulbright Specialist scholarship to assist in the development and integration of simulation at a nursing school in Thailand.
Her other service in the field includes serving as a reviewer for the National League for Nursing’s Nursing Education Perspectives journal and Clinical Simulation in Nursing. Additionally, she is associate editor for the international journal Simulation & Gaming and serves on the editorial board of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Simulation in Healthcare journal.