Nursing students at Bowie State University can recreate and practice life-like medical scenarios as part of the university’s nursing simulation resource center, complete with interactive medical mannequins.
Student Renee Taylor acts out a scenario by introducing herself as she would with a real patient: “Hello, Mr. Shapiro. My name is Renee, and I'm the nurse that’s going to be working with you today."
“He can blink. He can speak different languages. He can grunt, he can say 'I'm dying.' He can cough. He can do all of those things – heart sounds, lung sounds – everything,” student Taelor Francois said.
Students are briefed on the patient’s medical condition and then treat the patient on their own. The mannequins are controlled by instructors behind a glass wall, and cameras record how students provide treatment. The simulation aims to help students learn before they treat actual patients.
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“We want the students to make their mistakes here so we can address it in debriefing, and we talk about what they did well and what they did not do, what they learned," center director Debra Coppedge said.
Ashley Graham said her experience with the mannequins has helped.
“The more that we practice with the mannequins and the more time that we've spent here with them, I would say it helped my confidence when we go out to the hospitals and we’re working with actual patients," she said.
The university has mannequins of all ages, with a delivery room and a neonatal intensive care unit. In one simulation, students treated a child who went into respiratory failure while the parents were in the room. Taylor said the situation was scary but it boosted her confidence.
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“We want it to be real-life for them, so that when they go out, nothing is a surprise because they have experienced it in simulation," Dr. Jacqueline J. Hill said.
