Generosity supports Sim Lab for high-tech nurse training

Every day at Baptist Health Louisville, patients experience care shaped by compassion, clinical excellence, and continuous learning – driven by your generosity. 

Thanks to donors like you, nurse education has taken a leap forward through the expansion of the simulation lab. Once limited in resources, the lab is now a thriving hub of innovation, where experienced nurses, new graduates and interdisciplinary teams come together to learn how to provide even better care for our patients. 

Ashleigh Routte, a nurse educator at Baptist Health Louisville, has witnessed the transformation firsthand. 

“When I first started three years ago, our Sim Lab was very sparse,” Ashleigh recalls. “We didn’t have the equipment, the structure or the capacity to do what we’re doing today. But now, thanks to the generous investment of our donors through Baptist Health Foundation, everything has changed.” 

An innovative approach to learning 

Because of your generosity, today the Sim Lab features a number of high-tech resources, including healthcare-themed escape rooms that teach both clinical skills and how to effectively communicate under pressure.  

“Nurses learn to identify a team lead, practice closed-loop communication, and navigate interdisciplinary conversations,” Ashleigh explains. “It’s not just about learning a procedure – it’s about becoming a stronger, more confident team member.” 

Helping new nurses build confidence right out of school sets them up for long, successful careers.  

To ease the transition into practice, a particular simulation series tackles the common challenges new nurses face, like feeling unprepared or overwhelmed, through an exciting advancement known as immersive virtual reality (IVR). With the purchase of IVR headsets – funded by donations – nurses can engage in hyper-realistic training scenarios, like responding to medical emergencies, in a safe setting.  

Ashleigh’s team launched a research project to measure the results. 

“The impact was profound,” she says. “We saw significant improvement in new grad self-efficacy scores.” 

Ashleigh is clear about the role that donor investment plays in this success story. 

“Every innovative strategy we’ve been able to implement – from the IVR headsets to high-fidelity mannequins to our escape room teamwork simulations – has been supported by donor funding,” she explains. 

With the success of the Sim Lab program at Baptist Health Louisville, Ashleigh and her team are now working to scale these training models and share their findings across the Baptist Health system, so other care teams can benefit, too. 
 
“We’re building on this every year. We research, evaluate, and refine everything we do. Then we share it. We’re not just putting tools in rooms – we're changing the culture of nursing education.” 

Thank you for believing in this mission 

Healthcare is changing fast. To keep up, training needs to be more flexible, grounded in evidence, and built around teamwork. 

With your support, Baptist Health Louisville is leading that charge. 

Skilled nurses mean safer care. Your donation sends a powerful message to every nurse who walks through our doors: they matter, their growth is a priority, and they’re not alone on this journey. 

From all of us at Baptist Health Louisville, thank you for trusting us, investing in us, and empowering us to dream bigger and reach farther for the sake of our patients, our nurses, and the future of healthcare.