Campus News
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Simulation Lab Two Ready for Use ARTICLE BY
Mikaela Yeager Nicole Bonk
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
1 / Undergraduate Nursing Director Marsha Cravens instructs during a Victoria birthing simulation. 2 / A close-up of Newborn Hal. 3 / Simulation Lab Coordinator Erin Jordan discuses Newborn Hal’s capabilities with a student.
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July & August 2015
Striving for extraordinary quality in education is engrained in the culture at Clarkson College. One of the latest examples of such commitment is the inception of a second simulation lab on campus. The new space features a labor and delivery birthing simulator called Victoria and a neonatal simulator representing a 40-week gestation baby known as Newborn Hal. While Victoria’s primary function is to give birth, Simulation Lab Coordinator Erin Jordan said students can also use the tetherless manikin for basic and critical care scenarios, such as seizing, IV insertion and maintenance, assessment and more. Newborn Hal is able to show cyanosis, head movement and crying, which will allow students to complete one-minute and five-minute Apgar scores. He also has the ability to move his arms to show muscle tone and movement. To Jordan’s knowledge, no other college or university in the state has a Victoria simulator. “Many institutions have a Noelle, the older version of Victoria,” Jordan said. “Victoria is the newest
version of Gaumard’s Noelle birthing simulator but is updated enough to be given her own name.” Utilizing the new birthing simulator, students will learn to care for pregnant/ birthing mothers with both vaginal breech and cephalic (head) baby presentations, as well as how to treat postpartum hemorrhaging from the uterus and/or vaginal area. With Newborn Hal, BSN and PN pediatric nursing students will learn basic care and assessment of a newborn baby, as well as how to respond to complications. In addition to the tetherless manikins, Simulation Lab 2 includes a real fetal monitor, two monitors for vital signs and fetal monitoring, an infant bassinet, infant warmer and tablets in an adjacent control room for viewing and programming the simulators. Not long after the first Simulation Lab opened on campus in fall 2012, it became apparent how beneficial the space was in challenging students to think critically and enhance their overall practice. Due to the high-demand of the