As VCU psychiatric nursing faculty continues to utilize simulation as a teaching/learning strategy, they plan to incorporate a more intentional and systematic research component into the activities. This will include revision of the evaluation tools integrating rating scales that have been tested for reliability and validity. The nursing faculty is collaborating with drama faculty and students to develop activities that introduce and reinforce student understanding of emotional and physical presence, self-and other-awareness, and efficient use of time. In addi-tion, there is a need to further define operational aspects of simulation including costs, appropriate frequency of use, effectiveness as an alternative/make-up clinical activity. This paper has addressed simulation activities suitable for an undergraduate psychiatric course, the faculty plan to incorporate simulation activities in the graduate programme as well. Potential applications include simulated group psychotherapy, use of standardized patients in differential diagnosis of complex presentations. Moreover, simulations will be evaluated more extensively using the observer XT 7.0® (Noldus Information Technology, Lees-burg, VA, USA) facial recognition software to objectively identify non-verbal behaviours. In summary, there are countless opportunities for expanding the role of simulation in psychiatric nursing and it is imperative that educators and researchers share their experiences to expedite the growth of the specialty in this area.