(From left) Mindy Elayda, Carolyn Dixon, Cassandra Figgs and Sara Daykin proudly display their championship belt after winning SIM Wars.
The team of nurses known as Sparkle Krewe captured the SIM Wars championship at Emergency Nursing 2026, prevailing in a fast-paced test of critical thinking, adaptability and teamwork. The team’s victory underscored one of the competition’s central lessons: Strong communication can matter more than familiarity when emergency nurses face the unexpected.
Sixteen teams entered the SIM Wars arena in the Experience Hall, where emergency nurses were challenged to manage high-pressure patient scenarios with limited information and no advance knowledge of what awaited them. The competition, now a staple of ENA’s annual conference, once again blended education with competition in front of an engaged audience.
This year’s opening-round scenario centered on a tricyclic antidepressant overdose. Organizers intentionally withheld obvious clues to push teams beyond rote responses and into deeper clinical reasoning. According to SIM Wars medical director and judge Christopher Sampson, MD, FACEP, participants had to work through incomplete information and rely on assessment skills rather than immediate diagnostic answers.
The championship round raised the stakes even further with a four-week-old infant presenting with pediatric sepsis. Finalist teams were forced to adapt quickly, identify strengths within their groups and respond to a situation many found particularly challenging.
When the competition ended, Sparkle Krewe emerged as the 2026 SIM Wars champion. The winning team consisted of nurses from California, New Mexico and New York: Mindy Elayda, MPA, BSN, RN; Steven Jacobson, MS, MSN, MBA, RN, EMT-D, CEN, CPEN, CFRN, CTRN, TCRN; Sara Daykin, DNP, MSN, CPEN, TCRN, CNEcl, FAEN; Cassandra Figgs, MSN, RN, CFN; and Carolyn Dixon, DNP, MS, APRN, FNP-BC, CEN, TCRN.
A birds-eye-view of the nurses at work create an immersive experience for spectators.
Their victory was especially notable because the team members were not familiar with each other at the stretcher side.
“We have never once worked together,” Daykin said, noting the group relied on the shared clinical foundation of the ENA Trauma Nursing Core Course.
Competitive Advantages
That success echoed a point made before the competition by Sampson, who has helped lead SIM Wars since its first competition in 2017. He predicted communication, rather than familiarity among teammates, would separate the top teams.
“The teams that often do really well are teams that have great communication and work really well together,” Sampson said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be people you’ve worked with for years.”
Sparkle Krewe’s members credited that very approach for their championship performance.
“We definitely listened to each other and just collaborated really well,” Figgs said following the victory.
Trevardo Tomlison, Nafeesa Hye and Hamel Duplan of the New York Warriors think critically as they work through the TCA overdose scenario.
The Cottage Compressors of Cottage Health System in California finished second. Team members Chelsea Schmid, MSN, RN, CEN; Cathy Cleek, BA, CNS, CEN; and Shelley Alexander, MSN, RN, CEN, praised the scenarios for requiring investigation and critical thinking instead of offering straightforward answers. They credit their ED’s commitment to pediatric readiness for helping prepare them for the infant sepsis scenario in the championship round.
The New York Warriors, represented by Nafeesa Hye, BSN, RN; Hamel Duplan, BSN, RN, CEN; and Trevardo Tomlinson, BSN, RN, CEN, claimed third place. Reflecting on the competition, team members emphasized the importance of communication and fundamentals under pressure.
“There was no leader in a sense,” Duplan explained. “Everybody just shared their ideas out loud and went over the ABCs to make the appropriate approach or decision for the patient.”
For those who packed the arena in Phoenix, SIM Wars demonstrated once again success in emergency care is not simply about knowing the answer. It’s about working together to find it.