Nicole Novotny, MD is the Director of Simulation and Clinical Skills Training at the Ochsner Clinical Simulation and Patient Safety Center and the Director of Simulation for the Ochsner Emergency Medicine Residency. She also serves as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland – Ochsner Clinical School and as an Assistant Professor at Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine. She currently practices at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Dr. Novotny received her MD from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and completed both her emergency medicine residency and medical simulation fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine, where she received advanced training in scenario design, debriefing methodology, and simulation program development.
Most recently, she led the development of a three-year longitudinal simulation curriculum and a dedicated simulation elective for Ochsner Health’s Emergency Medicine residency program, earning the 2024 Award for Excellence in Didactic Education for this work.
Dr. Novotny is an active member of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and she regularly presents at national meetings, including the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare and SAEM. Her professional interests include curriculum development, task trainer innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion in simulation, difficult medical conversations, and advanced debriefing strategies.