Nursing Department Award

Nursing Department Awarded $216,000 from RGK Foundation to Establish Nursing Simulation Lab

The Nursing Department has been awarded $216,000 from the RGK Foundation, based in Austin, Texas, for the development and staffing of a nursing simulation lab.  The state-of-the-art lab will provide Dominican nursing students with key clinical experience in a risk-free virtual reality environment.  The lab will also be available to community health practitioners.

The simulation lab, which will open in January, will allow students to respond in real time to patient situations.   According to Dr. Luanne Linnard-Palmer, chair of Dominican's Nursing Department,   "This simulation lab, with two programmable mannequins, will put Dominican in the forefront of nursing education today by providing students with the real-world clinical experience they will need to transition quickly into the role of an independently functioning caregiver.   Simulation eliminates the serious risks inherent in practicing health care skills on live patients and creates a stress-free learning environment that incorporates practice and reflective learning."

"Providing meaningful clinical experience is one of nursing education's greatest challenges.  The health care industry has imposed new restrictions that make this clinical work more diffcult to obtain:  greater concern about liability, shorter length of hospital stays, hospital staff shortages, and declining number of preceptorships, to name but a few," notes Dr. Linnard-Palmer.

Two computer-controlled mannequins (an infant and an adult) are the main simulation tools.  Each of these mannequins can be programmed to simulate common medical conditions like croup or asthma or more critical conditions, like cardiac arrest or grand mal seizure.  If the mannequin is experiencing a grand mal seizure, for example, the virtual patient will turn blue from lack of oxygen, the vital signs will change and can show a stress response through impending cardiac arrest or septic shock.  The student has only minutes to respond to changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.  A two-way walkie-talkie in the mannequin enables the teacher, located in a nearby control center, to serve as the voice of the mannequin so that the virtual patient can describe symptoms and discomforts.

These simulated scenarios will give nursing students the opportunity to learn correct interventions in a risk-free environment.  Errors can be allowed to occur and play out, providing students with invaluable information and feedback about their individual performance and work as a team.

Dominican is deeply appreciative of this generous grant from the RGK Foundation.