Aleaha M. Peoples, MSN, RN

Advanced Senior Lecturer

Aleaha M. Peoples was an advanced trauma care nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 when she was offered a part-time position as a clinical simulation instructor at Penn Nursing.

Aleaha M. Peoples was an advanced trauma care nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 when she was offered a part-time position as a clinical simulation instructor at Penn Nursing. Ever since, Ms. Peoples has been providing a critical link for undergraduate nursing students between didactic learning and the clinical setting by teaching them in the simulation center.

“Teaching gives me the opportunity to be a part of helping create a highly-skilled group of nurses and providers for the future.”

Education

Post-Master’s Certificate, University of Pennsylvania , 2014
MSN, Thomas Jefferson University , 2007
BSN, Pennsylvania State University , 2003

Teaching

A Simulation Education Specialist, Ms. Peoples is currently the Co-Course Director for Nursing Care of the Young and Middle-Aged Adult” (NURS245). As such, Ms. Peoples plans, develops, implements, and evaluates teaching strategies in the didactic, simulation, and clinical setting for junior undergraduate students. In this leadership position, Ms. Peoples mentors and supports the clinical instructors, Helene Fuld Pavilion staff, and clinical simulation instructors as they develop their expertise.

Ms. Peoples’ experience as a Simulation Education Specialist began in 2013 when she started collaborating with assigned course and program directors for the following courses: “Medication Administration” (NURS165), “Nursing Care of the Young and Middle-Aged Adult” (NURS245), and “Nursing Care of the Older Adult” (NURS255), “Advanced Physical Assessment and Clinical Decision Making: Nursing of Children Clinical I” (NURS721), Family NP Program, Pediatric PNP Program, Pediatric Acute Care Program, and Pediatric CNS Program.

In the safe environment of the simulation center, which duplicates medical situations on sophisticated patient models, students explore and respond to medical scenarios that reflect their most recent classroom lectures, including handling emergencies, pneumonia, a drug overdose, a stroke or heart attack, and even post-surgical complications. As they develop clinical competencies, Ms. Peoples evaluates each student’s skills and clinical decision-making abilities in an environment that turns potential mistakes into learning opportunities for the development of more confident nursing students and nurses.

Research

Though simulation experiences were few and far between for nursing students just a decade ago, every Penn Nursing clinical course since 2013 has included a simulation component. Ms. Peoples alone has created more than 50 medical scenarios for the simulation center. She works with other nursing and simulation education instructors to constantly revise the curriculum to give students critical learning experiences in a safe environment.

Through a 2014-2016 grant from Penn Nursing, Ms. Peoples was co-project director of a research study exploring the impact of video demonstrations on student performance in the simulation center. Called “Watch & Learn,” the project created instructional videos for nursing students that introduced them to simulation center protocols that are taught specifically at Penn Nursing – unlike other instructional videos found on the Internet. Ms. Peoples compared students who have watched the Watch & Learn videos with students who have not.

Clinical Practice

Ms. Peoples has over twelve years of nursing experience, working as a critical care staff nurse at both the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

Opportunities to Learn and Collaborate at Penn Nursing

Ms. Peoples is a member of Penn Nursing’s graduate and undergraduate simulation task forces, and she received a post-master’s certificate in nursing education and a certificate in simulation facilitating from the University of Pennsylvania.

Selected Career Highlights

Recipient, Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Recipient, Biobehavioral Health Sciences Unsung Hero Award (2020 & 2016)
Recipient, Undergraduate Award for Teaching, Student Nurses At Penn
Presenter, SON CTL Workshop Series: Teaching undergraduate nursing students in the clinical and simulation setting.
Presenter, Philadelphia Area Simulation Consortium and Sigma Theta Tau International Conference. Utilizing Simulation to Improve Communication and Collaboration in Intra-Professional Nursing Teams.
Presenter, International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare Conference, “Pathway to
Integration: The Role of Simulation Education Specialist”