Members of the University community recently had the opportunity to see the benefits and advances in the School of Nursing’s new Learning and Simulation Center.
Visitors at the Nov. 4 open house toured the nearly 5,000-square-foot center on the fifth floor of Libermann Hall. Larger than its predecessor in Fisher Hall, the new facility features state-of-the-art video technology and equipment designed to enhance clinical learning for nursing students.
“The acuity of a hospitalized patient is so high that a beginner/new nursing student is not yet ready or comfortable enough to go into that setting without some practice,” explained Rosanna Henry, who is director of the Learning and Simulation Center. “We want to increase their confidence and their comfort level. Our students get that practice here and gain confidence so that they feel better about dealing with an acutely ill patient.”
The center provides a sophisticated, yet realistic, hands-on setting that hones nursing students’ skills. In addition to the previous lab’s equipment, the new facility features more than $140,000 of new medical equipment donated by PocketNurse®.
“Due to the generosity of Anthony Battaglia, PocketNurse® president and CEO, Duquesne nursing majors have access to an infant resuscitator, phototherapy unit and incubator, a medication cart, an emergency cart and other anatomical models, simulators, wall diagnostics and modern medical equipment to address their clinical learning needs,” said Nursing Dean Dr. Mary Ellen Glasgow. “Students have the opportunity for a ‘dress rehearsal’ before entering the clinical environment due to this leading-edge learning facility.”
New patient simulators and digital-recording technology allow faculty to watch video to identify problems before meeting with students in a debriefing room to view the playback and provide constructive feedback. The center’s two simulation rooms also add more efficiency by enabling faculty to conduct simulations concurrently.
“To be able to run two simulations at the same time really helps to get through the large number of students more quickly,” said Henry. “There are courses that include scheduled labs, so we may have 200 to 300 students here in a week during which we are running lab courses and simulations simultaneously. It’s now much more efficient.”
The center is equipped with a Mondopad, which is a large touch-screen video monitor that interfaces with hand-held computers and cell phones, and supports remote viewing from any location that has Internet access. In addition to two classrooms, the updated center includes areas for instruction in acute care, health assessment, basic care, medication and home care.
Architects also designed a glass-enclosed space that is appropriately called the Flex Room. “Right now, it’s an obstetrics/pediatric area in which we can simulate a labor/birth delivery and post-partum care,” said Henry. “It can be whatever we want it to be, from an Ebola training area to a critical care room—we just set the stage differently. It’s flexible to be what’s needed.”
Henry added that the new lab space also helps with recruiting nursing majors to Duquesne. “Prospective nursing students come to campus expecting a state-of-the-art lab,” she said. “The feedback from students who toured the lab in Libermann as part of attending Duquesnefest this past summer told us that lab is what sealed the deal for them to attend Duquesne.”