Kherz’den Humphrey
Reporter
McDonald County Crowder College obtained a hospital simulation lab over the summer for the nursing students. The simulation lab includes two hospital rooms, a nurse’s station, a medicine closet, as well as an extra hallway for workspace and future plans. There is also a separate classroom, the skills lab, that doubles as the “control center” for the simulation lab.
“When students are in the lab, they are only to address me as their doctor, and not their teacher.” said Janet Ross, nursing instructor. Students can use the phones to call into the skills lab where Ross is and ask her questions in the sense of asking a doctor for permission or confirmation on what to do next when stuck.
Before the students can run the simulation, they must go over the “bedside report”, where Ross explains the details and condition of the patient, which helps prepare students for a real hospital.
In one of the simulation lab rooms, there is a life-like dummy capable of simulating human actions such as breathing, a pulse, bowel sounds as well as having an arm available for an IV or drawing blood. In the arm available for an IV and drawing blood, there are many veins covering the arm, giving students the opportunity to practice safely. On the other arm, there is a soft spot specifically for checking the dummy’s pulse.
The simulation dummies are controlled by hand-held devices similar to an iPad, this controls the pulse, heart rate, and breathing. The teacher is able to select different scenarios and can set the controls to imitate the condition a patient would be in, letting the students work though the simulation on their own.
In the skills lab, there is a set up where the teacher can observe without being in the room with students. There is a camera and speaker in each room in the simulation lab, and from the skills lab, the teacher can view and speak into each room to aid students when needed.
The nurses’ station replicates one from a real hospital and is equipped with computers, phones, and information binders. From the computer’s students can observe the condition of a patient and can monitor them without being in the room. They can also access the Electronic Health Records (EHR) which is programmed onto each computer in the simulation lab.
Onto the medicine closet, which is exactly what it sounds like, a closet designated for a medicine cart as well as medical equipment storage. The medicine cart has many drawers but can only be opened by the connected computer. In order to receive the medicine needed for their patient, the students must log in and go through the EHR system in order to locate the prescription, and dispense it into a drawer below, which then pops open like a cash register.
All nursing students are grouped into levels according to what semester they are in, ranging from level one to level four. Students are sent into the simulation lab in small groups allowing each person a chance to practice and learn. Those who are not in the running simulation lab observe from the skills lab and fill out an evaluation sheet, or checklist on what the current group is doing.
One of the nursing students, Marissa Shaver, stated that her favorite things about the simulation lab is the sense of independence that it gives the students. “The most impactful thing is that the new lab closely resembles a real hospital!” Shaver said. “It makes good practice for us when we graduate,” which will be May 2021.
Ross is excited for the campus to have the simulation lab and can’t wait for students to be able to experience it all. She is happy that students have this new “safe place” to practice and use critical thinking without causing harm. Ross looks forward to teaching and observing lots of lessons through the simulation lab, and is happy the campus was able to develop it.
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