As a nursing school faculty member, I receive multiple emails weekly about up and coming trends, news, and opinions from various sources. Among these is the ANA Smart Brief, a daily emailed newsletter specifically about the nursing field.
In a recent post, I found an
article about simulation in nursing (Rebecca Hendren). In Arizona, a company which owns several hospitals has taken an entire hospital which is no longer in use and made it a virtual hospital. The area hospitals are using it as a training center for new graduate nurses and nurses who are new to their facilities.
Simulation is not new to careers which use technology. It has been used in aviation for many years and military training for tanks and other technologies. Simulation provides a safe learning environment for the student as well as the virtual patient. There are a myriad of nursing schools which offer a simulation lab as a part of the student curriculum.
In the simulation lab, the “patient” can be programmed for any scenario. The equipment varies in sophistication. It can be as simple as reproducing breath or heart sounds to actually giving birth. The nurse interacts with the patient, the family, and other members of the health-care team. After completion of the scenario, the student and teacher or manager reviews the responses during the exercise.
Critical Care nurses are very much in favor of simulation (Carol Rauen).
While praise is high for the simulation programs, they do not replace actual patient care. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) offers an on line presentation about the pros and cons of simulation from a regulatory perspective. Some State Boards of Nursing, who are protectors of the public, already have guidelines in place about how much simulation can be part of a pre-licensure program.
I agree that simulation can be very useful in providing insight into the body’s reaction to illnesses and treatment. However, experience with simulation will never be equal to experience with real people until there is an actual
D.A.R.Y.L. or Bicentennial Man.
Mary Anne Crowell, RN, MSN
Associate Dean of Nursing
Beckfield College
Mary Anne Crowell is the Associate Dean of Nursing at Beckfield College. She has an A.A.S. in Nursing from Northern Kentucky University, a B.A. in psychology from Thomas More College, and a Master of Science in Nursing from Bellarmine College, Louisville, Ky. She has been at Beckfield for four and a half years. Her main area of nursing is Medical Surgical which she has practiced for 30 years.