Learning through Simulation

Simulation course puts Millikin Nursing students in real-world situations

Learning through Simulation

Students conducting nursing simulation

It's 11 a.m. on a Monday, and on the first floor of Millikin University's Leighty-Tabor Science Center, nine nursing students are attending to a patient who is showing symptoms of a stroke. The patient however is an iStan simulator, a high-tech mannequin used for health care instruction and training scenarios.

This particular lesson was just a small piece of the Senior Simulation Experience course taught at Millikin's School of Nursing. Building on content from previous nursing courses, the course connects theory to practice by providing students with simulation experiences to help build self-confidence and prepare for professional nursing practice.

"It's a synthesis course of all the things the students have learned and some things they maybe haven't experienced yet," said John Blakeman '13, lecturer in Millikin's School of Nursing.

Blakeman, along with Charlotte Bivens, Millikin instructor and coordinator of human simulation and nursing labs, worked together on designing the layout of the eight-week course.

"We focused on coming up with things that the students have never seen or done before in clinical," says Blakeman. "We want them to get used to talking to physicians, dealing with handoff reports, and working with an interdisciplinary team."

A Millikin faculty member since 2005, Charlotte Bivens had the idea of bringing a simulation course to the curriculum for some time. "We trialed the course last academic year and it went over very well. We've had excellent reviews and it's a course the students should feel good about in preparing them for the real world," said Bivens.

 

Students participate in nursing simulation

 

During the course, the nursing students are able to think through scenarios that could potentially be life-threatening for the patient.

The students also experience other simulation sessions such as practicing taking and implementing physician orders, prioritizing care, administering high-risk medications, initiating nursing care protocols, and attending to the psychosocial needs of the patient and family.

"Each week has a different focus," says Blakeman. "We start out by talking about the basics, such as the layout of the simulator room and working with the simulator, and then we progress from there."