Simulation Training Provides Hands-on Experience for CTC Nursing Students

From Chattahoochee Technical College:

Students enrolled in Chattahoochee Technical College’s Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) program were recently introduced to a hands-on training tool that is designed to teach future healthcare professionals proper care and resuscitation of preterm infants.

Premature Anne, which was developed by Laerdal in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, is a realistically proportioned 25-week preterm mannequin. CTC Associate Dean of Nursing and ASN Program Director Quetina Pittman Howell said the mannequin is being used in the nursing skills lab to help students enrolled in the Family Nursing Concepts course strengthen skills in delivering compressions, airway management techniques and vascular access.

“The mannequin weighs about two pounds and she will be used in critical care situations. Students are able to practice resuscitating her and drawing blood from her. The students are challenged in scenarios that mimic real-life emergencies,” Howell said. “Instructors are also participating in the training by taking on the role of nurse practitioners and doctors. The students are gaining invaluable experience from these simulations.”

Obtaining clinical space for ASN students to learn in actual health care environments such as hospitals or clinics can be highly competitive; therefore, providing students with hands-on training at the Paulding Campus improves team communication and builds upon a student’s ability to assess, diagnose and treat preterm infants.

“When students are able to participate in learning activities such as Premature Anne, they are given real-life experience and are able to do things that they normally wouldn’t be able to do in clinical,” Howell said. “Clinical students are never able to intubate on their own. They have to stand back and observe. When you are in simulation, the students can work on a realistic mannequin.”

Chattahoochee Technical College’s Associate of Science in Nursing is a highly competitive, rigorous program involving classroom, laboratory and clinical activities. Students must have the ability to make practical and proper application of the concepts and facts taught in the classrooms, labs and clinical settings.

The nursing program is approved by the Georgia Board of Nursing and is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).

Further information is available through the Chattahoochee Technical College website.

Photo courtesy of Chattahoochee Technical College