Nursing Students Learn in High-Tech Lab

By Lissa Harris

It’s the first week of the new semester, and several dozen nursing students are getting their first look at the Center for Clinical Education and Research, their new lab on the third floor of the Science Building. The classrooms and hallways are buzzing with activity. But nearby in a spanking-new exam room, SimMan is unperturbed by all the fuss.

Rubbery eyelids closed, mouth eerily agape, the high-tech mannequin lies on a hospital bed under a green blanket. “I’m going to take your blood pressure now, sir,” says CCER director Judith Healey Walsh, bending over the supine figure.

SimMan doesn’t utter a peep. But next door, on a large video screen, computer software shows his vital signs: blood pressure, heart rate, ECG readings, respiration. By pushing a few buttons, Walsh can have live video of both the SimMan software and her actions in the exam room piped into a classroom across the hall.

The fruit of five years of research and planning, the new $4.6 million CCER is built to showcase patient simulation, a rapidly growing trend in healthcare education. Modeled after state-of-the-art education centers at the University of Maryland and Case Western Reserve University, the CCER was designed to make UMass Boston a regional leader in healthcare education.

“I think we can safely say there isn’t another university in New England that has a facility in this level,” says Walsh. “I think it will be a draw for students and faculty.”

Downstairs on the second floor, in the old nursing headquarters, students crowded around antiquated equipment in a small room that served as both lab and classroom. Faculty stressed the importance of handwashing, but the lab had no sinks. Exercise and Health Sciences students were a building away in Wheatley, making collaboration with the nursing program tough.

Now, with 5,100 square feet, the CCER is several times the size of the old nursing lab. A spacious classroom hosts several workstations where groups of students can practice clinical skills. The center has three exam rooms and a critical- care room, each equipped with modern hospital equipment like “smart” IV towers and headwalls. A new Exercise and Health Sciences lab, just next door to the main nursing classroom, features state-ofthe- art fitness testing and exercise equipment. Video cameras mounted in every room are connected to a central AV system.

The high-tech equipment is exciting, but Walsh is also pleased with the lab’s basic amenities like sinks and closets. With the expanded space, there is now room for more patient simulators; the CCER is now home to two SimMan simulators, a BabySim, and over a dozen others from the VitalSims line. Next to join the cast is Noel, a pregnant mother designed to teach students about the birthing process.

For students, the high-tech simulators and advanced AV equipment means that their nursing education is becoming more and more like treating live patients in a real hospital. Confronted with a simulator “patient” that has been preprogrammed to have certain symptoms, students have to act quickly and decisively. The simulators respond to the students’ actions, and can even “die” if given the wrong treatments. Sometimes faculty will assign a role-player to act as a family member, to make sure students can practice the communication skills they’ll need in a real emergency.

“It’s different from a paper-andpencil test,” says Walsh. “It totally mimics the clinical setting. If they make a mistake, they learn from that mistake, but no harm is done to the patient.”

Later, the students can watch tapes of their performance, or review the digital recording of the simulator’s vital signs to see how it responded to their “treatment.”

“This is helping them be reflective practitioners,” says Walsh.

In the near future, the center’s impact will reach beyond the walls of the university. Soon, Walsh says, the department hopes to form partnerships with healthcare agencies, public schools, and hospitals. Along with teaching UMass students, the new lab will host skills-building workshops for healthcare providers, outreach to local schools, and classes for the community.

“Our goal is to have this be a regional center for training simulation,” she says.

“I am particularly excited to have a state of the art facility of the highest quality for our outstanding students, who deserve the best,” said CNHS Dean Greer Glazer.

Rosa Giorgio, CCER’s assistant director, says the students are excited about the new lab. “There’s a lot of pride among the nursing and Exercise and Health Sciences students.”

Taking a break from leading a group of undergraduates through a review of how to give intramuscular injections, graduate teaching assistant Emily Patil says that the new center is more like real medical practice. “It feels like a hospital,” she says. “I really think it’s going to bring the College of Nursing to a higher level.”

Nursing junior Jackie Shellmer is delighted with the change. “Oh, God, there’s no comparison,” she says. “It’s beautiful.”