Skills & Simulation Labs
Nursing Labs
The Nursing Labs are located on the second and third floors in Martin Hall. There are three separate areas designated for practice and clinical learning. The areas include two dedicated practice/testing labs and one dedicated simulation lab. The practice labs are equipped with hospital beds, trainer manikins, headwall systems with oxygen and suction set ups, and bedside tables. The practice labs allow the nursing students to practice on manikins specifically designed for medical procedures. The students are able to learn basic and advanced clinical skills ranging from bed baths, medication administration, and physical assessments to respiratory support and advanced cardiac life support measures.
The second floor houses a skills practice lab along with the Bill and Jo-Ann Vandergriff Simulation Learning Lab. The second-floor skills practice lab includes ten individual practice rooms and two open practice areas. The third-floor houses a multipurpose skills lab with twelve practice spaces that have moveable wall partitions to accommodate faculty demonstration and larger group activities.
Bill & Jo-Ann Vandergriff Simulation Learning Lab
The Bill and Jo-Ann Vandergriff Simulation Learning Lab is a six-bay simulation hospital with a large control/observation center. Each half of the simulation lab has three bays and a nursing station. The Vandergriff Simulation Learning Lab is completely transformable to meet the needs of the faculty and students. The lab is equipped with streaming/recording video and audio allowing for two-way communication between the faculty and the students. Each nursing station has an Automated MedDispense, nurses’ desk, supply carts, adult and pediatric crash carts, and workstations on wheels. The bays are generally set up with a hospital bed and headwall cabinet with supplies and a monitor. Some bays are more specifically set up with birthing beds, bassinets, warmers, incubators, ventilators, and stretchers. The Vandergriff Lab is home to a family of simulated patients and clinical settings that allow nursing students to practice techniques along with clinical judgement in a safe environment.
The simulators are ethnically and generationally diverse. In total the Vandergriff Lab houses seven adult, five pediatric, and four infant simulators along with a birthing simulator. The simulators are fully interactive manikins that have lung sounds, heart sounds and rhythms, bowel sounds, pulses, and a range of vital signs. Additionally, the simulators are able to speak several preset phrases as well as allowing faculty to utilize a microphone to internal manikin speaker feature in response to assessment questions. Utilizing the Vandergriff Lab, nursing faculty are able to expose students to specific learning objectives and complex clinical experiences that they may not have the opportunity to see in their regular clinical experiences. Additionally, students are able to gain more comprehensive clinical exposures with faculty feedback and evaluation while they learn team work, critical thinking skills, and improved communication techniques through their experiences in the Vandergriff lab.
All labs are open Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm during the academic terms except for university holidays. All lab spaces are supervised by a registered nurse with expertise in lab skills and simulation. All of the labs may be reserved by faculty for demonstrations, practice, and testing purposes. Students may reserve space for skills practice.
Contact
Maris Braddock
Skills Lab Coordinator
(662) 329-7749