While the patients may not be real, Oklahoma Christian University nursing students are gaining real world experience in the recently opened Ellis Clinical Skills Lab and Simulation Center.
Located in the Heritage Plaza building, the 7,000 square foot training center with four training mannequins is replacing art studios, storage rooms and career services offices which used to occupy the same location.
Construction began last October, and the laboratory started working partially for summer classes this year. Its grand opening happened two weeks ago on Friday, Sept. 13.
Professor of nursing Jennifer Gray said plans to build the laboratory were already underway when she came to Oklahoma Christian University in 2015. She said the new space comes with new, state-of-the-art equipment that allows students to practice and learn nursing in a low-pressure environment.
“If we are teaching vitals or something, you can program different blood pressures [on the mannequins],” Gray said. “This is a real simulation. Faculty can be behind the glass and sound like they are choking or coughing through the mannequin. The computer can generate sounds, and they can respond to medications. The idea is to get comfortable in here, so it is easier to go to into the hospital setting.”
According to Gray, the laboratory will increase students’ confidence and skills.
“Because if they are confident about the skill, that allows them to focus on the patient,” Gray said. “A lot of times when students have to do something with a patient there is so much concern about the skill that they almost forget they are doing it with a patient.”
Gray said the building is open for students to study in off-hours as well. The area with the equipment remains locked, but the new conference rooms and old classrooms are available to the students.
Senior nursing major Hannah Arning said the laboratory will be helpful with real-life unexpected and stressful situations.
“It can be easy to forget what you, as the nurse, are supposed to do if you have never experienced it before,” Arning said. “Situations like a patient who is coding, about to give birth or having a seizure. Now with our simulation lab, we can practice those situations and be prepared to act efficiently when we are on our own in the hospital.”
Junior nursing major Summer Neff said going to the library is almost like going to work a hospital.
“The supply closet and setup of the laboratory is now organized just like a real hospital,” Neff said. “The high-tech mannequins allow us to interact with them like we do with real patients. It really is a blessing and will help prepare us for our careers as nurses.”
Gray said the students have no problem getting jobs when they graduate from the Oklahoma Christian University nursing program. According to her, their Christian principles make them stand out in the industry, and the new space will help the students understand their nursing path.
“Students really began to see it as theirs,” Gray said. “A place that they felt like is a complement to what we were doing in the school of nursing. We really see our degree as helping people not only learn the content and mechanics of nursing but also to develop a sense of how to make nursing your ministry. It is the idea that I can go to work in the area of nursing, but I can also be serving God by serving other people.”
According to Arning, reputation is the reason she chose Oklahoma Christian University.
“I am passionate about missions, and I loved that this program would help me explore how to serve and show the love of Jesus within the medical field,” Arning said.
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