On Monday, the University Nursing School held a conference, bringing together over 80 nursing education professionals representing 30 different academic and health care institutions for the first ever statewide conference on the use of simulation technology in nursing education.
The conference was held by Laedal, the producers of the SimMan patient simulator, according to a press release. The SimMan represents the highest level of simulation technology available, according to the release. The simulator includes a broad array of equipment including specific "body parts" to facilitate learning a variety of nursing skills, such as practicing the insertion of an IV needle, and includes audio software to replicate heart, lung and other body sounds as heard through a stethoscope.
These mannequins are "life sized, computerized mannequins; [they] can be programmed to have many different symptoms of diseases," said Nursing School Dean Jeanette Lancaster. "We now have the funds to also purchase an infant simulator."
The Commonwealth has the largest amount of human simulators of any state in the nation--75, according to the press release.
Nursing Prof. Reba Moyer Childress, director of the University's School of Nursing's Laboratories for Clinical Learning, said one of the greatest values of using simulation technology is the way it helps advance critical thinking and decision making in students and their growth in teamwork, in addition to the acquisition of specific clinical skills.
"This conference was not only about learning more about the simulation mannequins but also to improve networking and create an alliance in the state of Virginia within nursing," Childress said.
Another focus of the conference was to learn how to integrate the use of simulation devices into the curricula of nursing schools.
"With the nursing shortage, we're trying to increase our enrollment, and with limited clinical placement sites, it is crucial for us to consider developing and implementing these types of technologies in nursing education," Childress said. "Not only limited to nursing education but in an inter-disciplinary manner, in a way that expands beyond nursing."
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