Celebrating National Nursing Week at the University of Lethbridge
Media are invited to the Simulation Health Centre on Friday, May 16, at 11:30 a.m.
The theme of this year’s National Nursing Week, May 12 to 18, is The Power of Nurses to Transform Health. Nursing care has evolved with technological advances, such as simulation, and the education of nurses has been transformed as a result.
The University of Lethbridge’s Simulation Health Centre (SHC) allows students to practise their nursing skills on manikins that respond much like a patient. For example, the centre’s high-fidelity manikin has pupils that react to light, eyes that blink, heart and breath sounds, palpable pulses and the ability to sweat or bleed. One of the learner experiences involves putting the manikin into cardiac arrest.
“In this scenario, we run the students through what they might see in a hospital setting, with the code team coming in, providing chest compressions, administering the emergency medications and delivering the shocks through a simulated defibrillator, or LifePak, which allows the students to see and practice with similar equipment used in the actual clinical setting,” says Lisa Johnson, SHC coordinator.
When students practice CPR on the manikin, instructors, via a laptop, can tell if the students are pushing hard enough and fast enough. The real-time feedback and debriefing afterward help solidify their skills and knowledge, which students can then take forward in their clinical practice.
“In these innovative learning environments, nursing students are not just participants; they are our future leaders in the nursing profession,” says Johnson.
Media are invited to attend the Simulation Health Centre to see the high-fidelity manikin in action and learn about the role of simulation in nursing education.
Who — Lisa Johnson, SHC coordinator and Joanne Williams, SHC lab technician
Where — Simulation Health Centre, Markin Hall, Room M2018
When — 11:30 a.m.
Please RSVP your attendance to caroline.zentner@uleth.ca.
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Contact
Caroline Zentner, Public Affairs Advisor
University of Lethbridge
403-394-3975 or 403-795-5403 (cell)
Our University’s Blackfoot name is Iniskim, meaning Sacred Buffalo Stone. The University is located in traditional Blackfoot Confederacy territory. We honour the Blackfoot people and their traditional ways of knowing in caring for this land, as well as all Indigenous Peoples who have helped shape and continue to strengthen our University community.