Interprofessional education, the basement of the DuB, and the future of healthcare
The basement of the DuBois Center, known colloquially as “the DuB,” has gone through numerous changes throughout its lifetime. Last year, students could find a place to study and even take some classes down there. In the ‘80s, the DuB’s basement was home to NAU’s Police Science Department and was equipped with everything from a crime lab to a shooting range. In fact, the Benchmark statue, often referred to as the “French fry sculpture,” that towers over the south field outside the DuB was once used as a ventilation system for the shooting range.
Throughout the following decades, the DuB’s basement has gone through many a metamorphosis, and just this summer it evolved into its most recent form: the Nursing Simulation Lab.
The School of Nursing is now equipped with a state-of-the-art simulation lab to ensure students can get the best practical experience before they go out into the field and begin dealing with the startling prospect of an actual patient. The lab effectively bridges the gap between page and practice, so much so that AZ Family, a television news station, covered its implementation in a recent story that was broadcast statewide.
At the core of this brand-new simulation lab are the high-fidelity simulation mannikins that have a seemingly endless amount of application. Though the school has been practicing nursing simulation for a decade now, this is the first time it has a true facility of 10,000 square feet dedicated to it. “We can mimic what it would be like to take care of a real person,” says Jennifer Rossetti, professor in the School of Nursing and facilitator at the simulation lab. She went on to explain, “The first time you insert a catheter or something like that, it might be nerve-wracking. Students can practice these skills and assessments, get that nervousness off and hone their skill set.”
The lab doesn’t just help nursing students, however. This incredibly valuable resource can help all students pursuing healthcare degrees through the power of interprofessional education. Recently, some of the mannikins were brought to the Walkup Skydome where Athletic Training students were able to practice on-field simulations. Corey Oshikoya, assistant clinical professor in the athletic training program, helped facilitate the athletic training simulation along with Rossetti.
Oshikoya explained that the simulation exercise “focused on patients who were essentially deceased, had gone into cardiac arrest, and therefore didn’t have a pulse. This is best simulated with a mannikin.” An element of athletic training care that is often glanced over is the fact that emergency treatment for issues such as a cardiac arrest must occur on the field with all the sports equipment still on the athlete. In this clinic, the mannikins were fitted with helmets and jerseys that students had to work around and slice through to properly provide treatment in a timely manner. Oshikoya went on to say “the students at the end of the day felt like they were better prepared to manage the situation. They got some more confidence out of understanding what the components were and how things look in real life situations.”
The new simulation lab ensures that future generations of healthcare providers can train and become highly skilled, practice-ready professionals through interprofessional education. “Overall, the ability for our department to partner with the School of Nursing and for us to be able to use their simulation units, to take them over to an environment which our students will be working in and give them kind of a realistic view of how patients may end up and how to provide care for them is has an immeasurable impact and is only possible through interprofessional education,” said Oshikoya. This immeasurable benefit is being seen all over the College of Health and Human Services. Though practices may differ, goals throughout CHHS departments are the same: prepare our future generation of healthcare and health professionals. The creation of the state-of-the-art Nursing Simulation Lab marks the beginning of a new life for the basement of the DuB, one dedicated to meeting the demand for passionate, dedicated, and skilled healthcare workers throughout the state of Arizona and beyond.
