VU nursing program gets $1 million grant to upgrade experiential learning lab

There are some areas of life where practical experience makes all the difference, such as nursing. Thanks to a $1 million federal award students at the Valparaiso University College of Nursing & Health Professions will see significant updates to the Simulation and Experiential Learning Centers they use for hands-on learning.

The award is part of $20.5 million in earmarks acquired by U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, on behalf of the First Congressional District as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed in December. The money will be used to buy 10 new beds, along with side tables and monitors, two medium-fidelity full-body simulators, a chest tube simulator, and a medication dispensing system, among other equipment and upgrades planned to give nursing and health professions students realistic practice sessions that mimic a real hospital setting.

The program’s flagship building, Lebien Hall, houses the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) and the Simulation Center. In both spaces students are able to perform the art and science of nursing on human replicas that have heartbeats and talk. Eight beds on the main floor CEL and three beds on the second floor Simulation Center allow students to practice on human models that can even receive IV fluids.

Their genders can be changed out to enact different medical scenarios, such as obstetric hemorrhage. Realistic silicone skins embedded with real human hair can be added to the simulators to create scenarios that involve varying ages and races.

Beginning in the second semester of the sophomore year VU nursing students begin spending clinical days at area hospitals. Simulations on campus, however, bring extra depth to their education and can be included in their required clinical hours.

Students have worked on simulators with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), infectious diseases, ethics challenges, end-of-life issues, psychiatric disorders, pediatric cystic fibrosis and gerontology challenges. “They’re putting their skates on right now,” said Kerstin Koch, VU simulation education specialist.

Senior nursing student Braulio Alcala, of Salinas, California, will graduate in August when he hopes to begin a career in emergency room nursing. He found the simulation where he and his classmates got to experience interacting with a doctor particularly helpful to his plans.

He explained that while nursing students get clinical experience in real hospitals they’re not allowed to receive clinical orders from doctors, leaving an experience gap in that area. “A lot of my friends who are nurses say they struggled with that,” Alcala said. “They’re nervous to call the doctor.”

Fellow nursing student Elizabeth McFalls, also a senior, from Kouts, plans to pursue her doctorate in nursing after graduating in August. She hopes to work in internal medicine and geriatrics eventually, and found the COPD simulation particularly interesting, as well as the debriefing that is part of every simulation. “I really like the debriefing, and then you get to try it again and reuse what you learned,” McFalls said.

Dual-run simulations are a hallmark of the VU education. In this instance a simulation is run, debriefed, and then rerun, so students can immediately apply what they learned the first time, said Gail Kost, clinical associate professor, VU Simulation Education specialist and director of the Center for Experiential Learning .

“It really is not done at a lot of universities because it takes time,” Kost said of the process. “Our hope when they leave that debriefing at the end of that three hours is that that simulation made an impact, because if it doesn’t impact them maybe we need to change something.”

The overhauling of the simulation spaces with the latest equipment seen in local hospitals, and beds that actually work, will enhance the experience well beyond the human simulators. Kost explained the 11 beds donated about five years ago don’t actually operate properly, limiting the development of muscle memory from something as simple as a nurse operating the hospital bed.

“We try to simulate a real situation as best we can,” Koch said. “As close to realistic as you can in a safe and controlled environment.”