One of the challenges for first-year nursing students is anxiety before attending their first simulated laboratory class. Many students may also be the first in their family to attend a university, come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and have no health care work experience. In a prelicensure program, faculty decided to use Flip, a cloud-based video discussion platform, as a strategy to support students' social and emotional engagement. An online Flip group was created for each class before attending on-campus at the beginning of semester. Students were encouraged to upload a personal short introductory message, which provided a social opportunity to watch and respond to videos with others. For those students for whom English is not their first language, hearing correct pronunciations of personal names was also helpful. Faculty were encouraged to post a video including some employment history, as well as advice on how to get the most out of the time spent in the simulated laboratory environment. The posts by faculty were the most viewed by students, and students added comments indicating that they were looking forward to the learning experience with them. This strategy may be useful in building relational rich experiences between students and faculty, which may enhance engagement and confidence in attending class.