Simulation Education

At the Decker School of Nursing, we've spent the last four years crafting and
refining our simulation process.
We started off with two low fidelity mannequins and have expanded to include
an entire family of high fidelity mannequins.
Our program will soon be enhanced by a birthing simulator and two updated sim men.
Simulation
in the beginning, when we first started doing them here
was
umm
in the lab we had a curtain
and the faculty would sit behind the curtain
and run the stimulation and the students
would be on the other side with sim man or
sim child.
You know, it was kind of like the Wizard of Oz where we would talk to through the curtain and
it didn't really give that sense of a true clinical experience because we were
still in the room with them
and they really had to pretend a lot that they were in a clinical
Situation.
I think that we've come a long way in that respect in terms of
appreciating that there's value in
staff and faculty providing the narrative as compared to relying
strictly on what sim man says because often times in the beginning we
would fumble with what do we want him to say there'd be a little break in the
action while we're trying to come up with the most appropriate comment for him to
make
and it lacked some of the process of what you would expect in real
Life. The physical space has recently has been expanded to include two newly
renovated simulation labs, a state of the art control room, and two multipurpose
rooms for debriefing and or general instruction.
The larger simulation room can be easily reconfigured to meet the needs
of the scenario.
It allows us to run any to human patient simulators that once giving students an
opportunity to assess and prioritize care
or one patient simulator far more focused assessment.
One of its features is a glass wall that allows easy viewing into the simulation
Space.
Our second room is smaller and more closely resembles the patient room,
but both rooms are well-equipped with head walls, simulating suction oxygen therapy,
diagnostic tools, working sinks, medication, and crash carts.
Our control room is between the two simulation labs
from this room our instructors can view the simulations live through the
security camera or by looking through the one-way glass.
There are speakers inside the simulators that allow us to be the voice of the
patient
and working telephones that let the students experience communicating with
other members of the health care team.
Hey Mr. Samson, how are you doing? My name is Patrick. This is Stephanie. We’re going to be your nurses today.
Uhh I don’t feel good. What is going on? What are you feeling? I got a lot of chest pain.
You have a lot of chest pain? Yeah.
Is it radiating anywhere? Do you feel it anywhere else?
It’s in my jaw and in my arm.
In your jaw?
All the simulation can be view live from any computer on our network
allowing instructors or visitors to view a simulation without directly
influencing the students.
The piece that became very
evident that was important
that I felt as a clinical
instructor and the teachable moment piece came within that debriefing and
early on of course the students had their eyes down
didn't really want to see themselves in action but it was amazing of what they
even picked up as far as what their tonality of voice and how they
presented themselves in a clinical situation and what they looked and
sounded like so that was a real eye opening moment for them. Another thing that I’ve really noticed
change over the last few years is that
we’re able to identify objective right on the screen for the students so
that when they're coming back to have they debriefing opportunity they
can actually identify what they did and what we noted
in terms of
for example being able to go in handwash or identify the patient or
place oxygen on. All of that is now actually part of the debriefing
processes as well. I think we've come a long way in terms of the process in terms of
let's focus on what worked,
let's focus on how that worked for you, why it worked, what might you do
differently in the future and allowing different people on the in the team, the
team of students,
to comment on how they think the process went and how it might
translate to what would happen in real life and how you might be able to modify
your behavior in a real-life situation.
The addition of the space allows us to dramatically increase ease and frequency
we can provide stimulation for students.
This gives them an opportunity to practice skills
that they may not have had a chance to in the clinical setting
with the comfort of knowing that they're in a safe learning environment. The
students love simulation. They want to do it again and again after they've done it.
There's always that
first-time nervousness that they have,
but now with the new simulation rooms that we have they don't even
realize that they're being taped or that they're being watched and monitored
and they really enjoy the experience.