It’s no question that being in the nursing profession requires skill, a passion to help, and the ability to be quick on your feet. Nurses are part of the physician or surgeon’s team and offer support that is pivotal in all sorts of medical care. Be it an emergency in intensive care or a routine check in at a walk-in clinic, nurses are in many parts of the healthcare industry and are essential in every setting. While doctors focus on the treatment, the nursing staff looks after your overall wellbeing – while still administering the treatments laid out by the primary physician and monitoring its progress.
Frantic efforts in the ER can prove to be extremely stressful, and even the more “mundane” day-to-day procedures require complete focus and concentration. These situations that nurses find themselves in are so singular and specific, that theoretical knowledge and description can only take them so far. To be able to be completely effective and efficient, nurses need to experience these unique situations in some form before they are thrust into the deep end. This is where clinical simulation in nursing education comes in.
What is Clinical Simulation? How Can Simulations Be Used in Education?
Clinical simulation in nursing education is essentially the life-like replication of situations that nurses would typically face as part of their professional careers. Typically, these simulations come equipped with all the technology and devices you would find in a hospital setting. There are even manikins that provide life-like responses to treatments.
Advantages of Clinical Simulation in Nursing
It isn’t cheap to set up clinical simulations for nursing education, and yet, many elite nursing schools invest in them. This is because the benefits of simulation in nursing education justify the expenditure.
Here are some crucial advantages of simulation in nursing education –
- Getting hands-on experience: It is much more effective to learn through practical experience rather than limiting nursing students to theoretical knowledge and forcing them to experience trial by fire the first few times they enter an emergency situation. The role of simulation in nursing education is crucial in familiarizing the student with equipment and situations that require varying tactics and solutions.
- Experience the pressure without the risk: Medical institutes are high-pressure environments. A clinical simulation recreates this pressure without running the risk of life-threatening mishaps. Simulations allow nursing students to gain perspective on crucial situations without the risk of the very real consequences that may unfold due to any sort of mistake. This allows students to make mistakes and learn from them so that when the situation involves a real person, they can avoid making any mistakes previously made in clinical simulations.
- Improve reaction times: Developing a muscle memory for basic tasks like taking a pulse, placing an intravenous drip, finding a vein for injection, and more is essential. These routine tasks need to be executed with precision and efficiency because quite often, reacting quickly can make all the difference in a medical situation. Clinical simulations help students practice these tasks and build that efficiency.
- Get comfortable in diverse medical environments: Simulations are typically built for various parts of a medical facility. Situations that an on-call nurse faces on a day-to-day basis can vary, which is why they need to be accustomed to handle all situations with breadth and precision. Responses to varying situations can be completely different and having multifaceted clinical simulations can arm student nurses with the information and experience required to deal with these situations more easily.
- Learning to make the right choices: Students of any discipline are expected to make mistakes, that is one of the ways they learn. However, the mistakes made by medical staff in the field can have a direct impact on a patients’ wellbeing. Therefore, simulation-based learning in nursing education is extremely important. It ensures that students can learn to make the right decisions and choices without having to face the real-life consequences of any mistakes.
At West Coast University, we aim to provide our students with the tools and experience they need to be successful in the healthcare field. That’s why we have technologically advanced nursing simulation centers that are an integral part of our nursing curriculum. To learn more about our programs or simulation centers, contact us today.
WCU provides career guidance and assistance but cannot guarantee employment. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or position of the school or of any instructor or student.
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