Practice like you play
Inspired by personal experiences, Jennifer Zimmerman, M.S.N., teaches simulations to health students
Oct. 6, 2025 — In 2021, Jennifer Zimmerman’s daughter Eleanor, or Ellie, was born at UF Health Shands Hospital at 25 weeks weighing just over a pound. After 130 days in neonatal intensive care, Ellie finally went home.
Zimmerman, M.S.N., who had been a pediatric emergency room nurse at the hospital, started working at the University of Florida College of Medicine’s Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation shortly after. Today, she teaches the next generation of health providers how to safely care for all patients, including babies like Ellie.
“I wanted to help grow the future of medicine,” Zimmerman said. “I wanted everybody who takes care of patients to be as good as the people who took care of my daughter.”
As UF physician assistant students, medical students and residents train, they spend time with Zimmerman and her colleagues in the simulation lab. There, they learn to work with and operate on patients using realistic mannequins that move and react to their treatments.
Jennifer Zimmerman, M.S.N., works at the University of Florida’s simulation lab. Here she holds Taylor, one of the mannequins students practice treatments on.
Photo by Marta Zherukha
As a clinical simulation education specialist, Zimmerman oversees simulation courses, providing students with realistic training scenarios to practice treating patients before graduation.
With her background as a pediatric nurse and experience caring for a micropreemie, Zimmerman said her favorite simulations to run are the neonatal ones.
One of the pediatric mannequins, Taylor, wears a pink-and-blue hat and a diaper. The mannequin moves its hands and feet around while the students assess its airways, stomach and head. Zimmerman and her colleagues only refer to Taylor and the 17 other mannequins by the names they’re given to show respect for what they teach students.
“We know they’re not real people, but we want students to treat them like they are,” Zimmerman said. “One day, they will be working on real people, and this is how they learn.”
The mannequins breathe and move in response to how students treat them.
Photo by Marta Zherukha
The lanyard around Zimmerman’s neck reads, “Practice like you play.” That’s her main goal for students: for them to approach these training sessions just as they would real life. By offering hands-on learning experience, the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation is reinventing the classic medical and PA school phrase: “See one; do one; teach one.”
“They do a lot of procedures and operations, and they do them here before they touch any real person,” Zimmerman said.
The most impactful simulation for many students is a simple one, Zimmerman said. They’re given a baby mannequin — usually Taylor, but sometimes Tatum or Tori — and are asked to find their patient’s medical issue. The thing is, the focus is not on running tests or labs but instead on the physical assessment.
“Oftentimes, the students are really locked in on trying to find a medical answer,” Zimmerman said. “They say, ‘Well, maybe if I do lab work, I’ll find this answer. Maybe if I get an X-ray, I’ll find this answer.’ And I’m really passionate about telling people that a lot of times, the answer is right in front of you.”
The Zimmerman family.
Courtesy of Jennifer Zimmerman
Students who perform a full physical assessment are the only ones who find the subtle bruising under Taylor’s pink-and-blue hat to make an accurate diagnosis.
At the end of the day, medicine is still all about building relationships with patients and learning how to thoroughly observe, listen to and treat each individual. Although technology and simulations have advanced since her time in nursing school, Zimmerman said, caring for the patient in front of her is at the core of what she does — even if the heartbeats of her patient are simulated by one of her colleagues on a control panel.
