GVMagazineSpring2016 - (Page 12)

DON O R I M PAC T Simulation changes how health care education is delivered T hanks in part to gifts made by private donors, Grand Valley students who are majoring in health professions and nursing are being trained for the workforce in a lab that uses cutting-edge simulation technology to ensure the learning environment is as close to the real-world as you can get. The Simulation and Learning Resource Center in the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, part of Grand Rapids' Medical Mile, uses real hospital equipment and state-of-the-art patient simulators that can be programmed to help students practice their skills. "These simulators ensure that when they graduate all of our students have experiences they need to prepare them for their clinical practice," said Doris French, director of simulation. Students learn much more than just clinical skills in the Sim Lab. They are able to work through their own emotional responses to emergent clinical situations or patient outcomes as well as learn to communicate with family members and patients. What makes simulation labs unique is the array of different simulation scenarios that can be programmed and changed in real-time to help students plan for the unexpected. "The quality of this simulation lab rivals, or is superior to, universities with medical schools, and, in those institutions, undergraduate and master's students would be competing for simulation time with medical students," French said. "What we have here is a facility that is changing how health care education is delivered." The manikins and task trainers for hands-on practice are expensive, and funding for the lab is supplemented by gifts from corporate donors and foundations, including Perrigo, which helped fund the lab. Headquartered in Allegan, Perrigo is an international manufacturer of private label over-thecounter pharmaceuticals. 12 Spring '16 "Having this advanced equipment allows us to provide varied learning experiences that we have 100 percent control over, while making every simulation different," said Samantha Scanlon, simulation coordinator. "We work really hard to make this a safe place for students to learn." The simulation team works directly with faculty members to plan a simulation that meets learning objectives. Jean Nagelkerk, vice provost for Health, said the interprofessional collaboration among disciplines in the lab ensures that students develop clinical and professional competencies. "As our students become health professionals, they are well-versed on professional roles and responsibilities, teamwork and effective communication, which are vital to the delivery of safe, cost-effective, patient-centered care," Nagelkerk said. The entire environment, which includes clinical skills labs, the simulation lab, and the standardized patient program that allows students to work with actual people who are serving as actors in a scenario, gives health professions and nursing students a significant boost when it comes time to treat real patients with real health problems. (Read more about the standardized patient program on page 24.) French said, "Being able to give students the experience with cases that might not often be seen at a clinic or hospital prepares them for anything they would see in a real care environment." Students from the Kirkhof College of Nursing practice their skills on a manikin baby in the lab at the CookDeVos Center for Health Sciences.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GVMagazineSpring2016

Campus News
Athletics
Donor Impact
Q&A Faite Mack
Arts
Saddle up: professor leads research on speech therapy technique
Sustainability
Cultural competency in health care
Hot ideas and inventions
Focal Point
Research
Life before Louie: making a mascot
Alumni News

GVMagazineSpring2016