Last fall, the University of Michigan School of Nursing opened a new Clinical Learning Center Simulation Lab. The 13,000-square-foot Clinical Learning Center is part of a new $50 million building. With the opening of the new building, the school of nursing incorporated hands-on techniques and life-like crisis emergency response with mannequins as part of their curriculum.
The learning center houses six simulation rooms, four control rooms, four patient rooms, three debriefing rooms, an anatomy lab, nursing skills lab, skills training room, interaction area, and assessment lab. The life-like mannequins cost $80,000 each and can be programmed to bleed, yell in pain, vomit, and even ask questions. There is also a birthing mannequin that can deliver a baby, and mimic health complications including kidney failure, septic shock, and seizures.
Putting students in life-like situations in the classroom prepares them for real-life crises outside the classroom. In a high-fidelity simulation situation where a mannequin goes into cardiac arrest and dies shortly after, students get to see what happens when the proper steps are not taken, teaching them how to do it right the next time.
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The school of nursing’s clinical instructors watch students in patient simulations from behind a one-way mirror while acting as the control system for the mannequin. Each of the simulations are recorded while students interact with the patients so that students and instructors can watch the video together after to go over key points and point out errors.
An estimated 400,000 people died from preventable medical errors last year, making it the third leading cause of death in the United States. Students need to learn to recognize patient symptoms, and how patient symptoms can vary for the same condition. It is also important for nursing students to learn when to run code if a patient goes into cardiac arrest. With simulation technology, nursing students can run code over and over again until they learn how to do it correctly without any hesitation.
Experiencing high-fidelity crisis situations in the simulation lab enables students to deal with the same situations in real-life settings. Simulations feel like real life, and that is how nursing students learn. Instructors aren’t harsh when their students make mistakes; they simply teach them how to do it correctly next time and make them run through the simulation again until they get it right.
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