[ad_1]
If the simulation seemed like controlled chaos, that was by design.
The Health Sciences Facility at Southeast Community College’s Lincoln campus played host to a simulation Friday, essentially transforming into a functioning hospital.
Students rushed between an ambulance port and a surgical suite on the first floor, or between a medical lab and an intensive care unit, all in service to 12 “patients” experiencing an array of health issues.
Southeast Community College student paramedics Skyler Berringer (from left), Joe Peterson and Emma Heller practice transport of a trauma patient, played by SCC faculty member Sherrie Young, during a simulation Friday.
The Interprofessional Education Day wasn’t so much about giving students another avenue to practice their individual skills, according to Renee Schnieder, a registered nurse and simulation coordinator.
Rather, the simulation was designed for students from nine different health care programs to work together across disciplines, communicate and solve problems on the fly.
“We tend to keep our little silos — nursing, lab, respiratory,” Schnieder said. “Learning about the roles and responsibilities of another department is huge.
People are also reading…
“It’s how we work together for the patient,” she added.
The all-day event marked the first time the simulation has been held in several years.
Nebraska’s community colleges faring better than most in enrollment this year
High-tech features, remote access on display in new SCC health sciences building
The coronavirus pandemic forced SCC to cancel the event in 2020, and SCC’s move into its current Health Science Facility delayed the event last year.
This year’s event was bigger than ever, however. About 170 students from SCC, as well as Union College, took part.
Inside the third-floor ICU, nurses in training at SCC and future physician assistants from Union College huddled around a manikin named “Henry” who had been hospitalized for three days with a COVID-19 infection.
During the assessment, the team called for respiratory therapy to administer a treatment, and later requested a physical therapist come to give the patient some exercise.
From behind a laptop running the simulation, Schnieder then threw the care team for a loop.
As the nurses and physical therapist sat the manikin up in bed for physical therapy, the patient suffered a cardiac event and began to code.
Students called the code and began life-saving measures: Taking turns doing chest compressions and delivering oxygen, marking time, delivering medications and preparing the crash cart.
Southeast Community College surgical technology students Kayla Gaskins (left) and Sydney Scharvin, along with instructor Laura Stallings, practice preparing a patient to be moved during a simulation Friday.
The exercise continued for about 20 minutes, until the patient “died” shortly after 2 p.m.
That was by design, Schnieder said.
The future health care workers who took part said they valued the experience.
Eric Loos, a second-year physician assistant student at Union College, said Friday’s simulation was his first time taking charge in a group setting.
“It’s stressful,” Loos said. “We’ve done the class, but we’ve never got to practice it, especially in a group. To me, what you think it’s going to be like is not what it was like.”
Construction begins on $22.6M health science center at SCC’s Lincoln campus
‘The reality of nursing’: Union College grads preparing to join health care workforce in a pandemic
The nursing students who took part said the simulation gave them a chance to experience something that doesn’t happen that often in their rotations throughout Southeast Nebraska.
“I think it’s been a unique experience,” said Rebecca Mousel, who is studying to become a registered nurse. “There’s some disciplines where I knew they existed, but didn’t really know what they did.”
“I was nervous. We were going to be with a whole bunch of people you didn’t know at all, and I think it went smooth,” said Danielle Block. “I thought it was interesting.”
Shannon Schidler, an LPN studying at SCC in Beatrice, said the chance to do a code simulation also gave several of the students an experience they may not get in their rotation.
“In small-town Nebraska, you don’t always get to see everything,” she said, adding: “Not that you want to see this.”
Loos said he thought the group did better in their first time working together than he expected.
“It just shows where we still have room as students to grow and work on things,” he said. “I think that’s what the value of these types of experiences are.”
Photos: Bryan staff who care for COVID-19 patients
Staff use personal protective equipment in the COVID-19 unit at Bryan Health.
Bryan has made counseling services available to its employees who work in the units hit hardest by the pandemic and has offered to rotate staff who need a week respite on another floor. “That gives them just enough of a break to come back and say ‘I can do this for another four weeks,'” said Candy Locke, the nurse manager.
The people who work in the COVID-19 ICU that currently takes up a large part of the sixth floor at Bryan East Campus say they are worn out. “When the nurses are having nightmares at night and they’re telling you about it, it’s rough,” said Leah Harrington, an assistant nurse manager.
A staff member in personal protective equipment tends to a patient in the COVID-19 unit at Bryan Health. COURTESY PHOTO
For months, doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists have worked to help COVID-19 patients on 6N, the ICU unit at Bryan East Campus. In many cases, patients who are breathing on their own see their conditions quickly worsen. “It’s hard to go home and not think about that, to just kind of de-plug from work, because these patients are so scared, and we’re trying everything,” nurse Kelsey Hoppe said.
Staff talk outside a patient’s room on 6N, the ICU unit for COVID-19 patients at Bryan East Campus last September.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or [email protected].
On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
[ad_2]
Source link