THE PULSE 1990 UMSON’s “mini hospital,” the Helene Fuld Nursing Laboratories, opened
1998 UMSON’s current Clinical Simulation Labs opened
2007 Clinical Simulation Labs named in memory of Debra L. Spunt
2015 First nursing program in Maryland to be accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare
Celebrating 20 Years of Hands-On Learning BY MARY PHELAN right: Gaumard Super Tory, a computercontrolled, highfidelity manikin, provides realistic feedback to students as they learn to navigate critical events. below: UMSON faculty and a Doctor of Nursing Practice Neonatal Nurse Practitioner student demonstrate the use of various manikins and equipment in simulation education.
The patient, a 35-week preterm infant whose mother delivered rapidly, had a fever at the time of delivery, turned blue, and was not breathing. Two UMSON faculty members and a student began resuscitation procedures and were able to stabilize the baby, which was actually a high-fidelity manikin that allows nursing students to experience critical health situations in UMSON’s simulation labs. As the trio worked through the demonstration, Amy Daniels, PhD ’18, MS ’12, BSN ’89, RN, CHSE, assistant to understand that clinical simulation professor and director of the Clinical experiences are not just technological marvels. They are integrated into the overall curriculum.” Ensuring students gain essential experiences in simulated environments is vital to preparing a skilled nursing workforce and improving health care outcomes. Simulated experiences can replicate care in a variety of clinical settings and allow students to experience rare and critical events. In the 1990s, former Dean Barbara R. Heller, EdD, RN, FAAN, professor emerita, placed an emphasis on creating safe, simulated learning environments, Simulation Labs in Baltimore, explained and UMSON opened a “mini hospital” the importance of simulated scenarios for students to practice advanced proto an audience gathered for the Debra cedures. The School quickly became a L. Spunt Clinical Simulation Labs 20th model of clinical simulation education. Anniversary Celebration on Dec. 6. “It was a true trailblazer,” Kirschling “It is easy to be impressed by the said. “As the plans for the current technological marvels of modern building were developed, Dean Heller simulation: babies that can turn blue, ensured that there would be sufficient manikins that you can intubate, surspace for a dramatically expanded gical wounds that can hemorrhage, clinical simulation program.” heart rates that can suddenly go The School’s current simulation awry, and other technical feats,” said labs were opened as part of the $38 UMSON Dean Jane M. Kirschling, million, 154,000-square-foot new PhD, RN, FAAN. “But it is important School of Nursing building in 1998.
8 • NURSING FOR/UM • SPRING 2019
PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD LIPPENHOLZ
Under the leadership of Dean Emerita Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, FAAN, the labs continued to grow and thrive. In 2004, when UMSON opened its simulated operating room, the total number of sim labs was 24 – the most of any nursing school in the nation. The clinical simulation labs were directed by Debra L. Spunt, DNP ’07, MS ’83, BSN ’79, RN, FAAN, assistant professor, from their opening in 1998 until her death in 2007. The National League for Nursing credited Spunt for the design, administration, and management of “the preeminent nursing student learning labs in the world.” Following her death, the school named the labs in her memory and established the Debra L. Spunt Clinical Simulation Practice and Research Endowment, which allows UMSON to remain on the cutting edge of simulation education. “Although we continue to build on our legacy, we certainly cannot and do not rest on it,” Kirschling said. “Our clinical simulation program and its place in our curriculum is continually evolving, and we are always responding to new opportunities to demonstrate national leadership.”