New Simulation Tool Enhances Nursing Curriculum
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Nursing students at Trinity have a new learning tool that enhances the current simulation lab experience and the College’s well-respected and accredited nursing program.
T.I.G.G.E.R., the technology informatics generating and guiding education room, provides a remote space where students can observe the simulation in the lab via video and offer real-time critiques of fellow students participating in the simulation. They may also calculate drug doses to be administered, discuss other interventions that may be helpful to the “patient’s” condition, write up a caremap, and check lab values.
For example, students in the class taught by Assistant Professor of Nursing Sue Buechele may work on a pediatric simulation of an adolescent suffering appendicitis. While half of the students participate in the simulation, their classmates observe and evaluate the scenario from the TIGGER room. The groups then change places.
The TIGGER room allows more students to be actively engaged during the simulation and use critical thinking skills to evaluate the nursing interventions/care being provided by their classmates. At the end of the simulation, students and professors debrief and discuss the exercise from the points of view of active participant and observer.
Nursing students said they feel more prepared for clinicals after participating in the simulations.