Sept. 28, 2022
Lee Health is now home to two simulation labs – one at Lee Memorial Hospital and the other at Gulf Coast Medical Center, and plans for an additional lab are underway. These simulation labs provide a highly realistic training experience for our nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and allow them to learn and grow in a risk-free environment.
The Nursing Education Center at Lee Memorial Hospital opened in July with an extensive simulation lab stocked with low, mid and high-fidelity task trainers, mock patient rooms, a computer lab and a classroom space with video conferencing capabilities.
“After seeing the struggles we all faced over the past two years with COVID, we see the Center as a way to boost morale, support retention and help our nurses and CNAs enhance their clinical skills,” says Lydia Limiero, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, nursing professional development supervisor. “The Center benefits new nurses and experienced nurses in their job roles. It also supports international nurses in learning how we practice nursing at Lee Health.”
Tony Wright, MSN, RN, CNE-cl, nurse resident development specialist, was integral to creating the Center alongside Lydia’s team. “We see nursing as the foundation of patient care, and the Center helps nurses enhance and master clinical skills that are crucial to safe, high-quality patient care,” he says.
Tony, who is also a nursing professor at Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW), says the Center provides an opportunity to advance our nurse residency program while also recruiting new nurses to our health system. By partnering with FSW, its clinical adjunct professors can bring nursing students to the Center to practice their skills.
“The Center shows students what Lee Health has to offer new nurses – that we believe in nursing excellence. We are invested in their training so they can continuously provide enhanced patient care,” Tony says.
FSW also donated a high-fidelity task trainer for the Center that has vital signs and heart, lung and bowel sounds. It can also make sounds to indicate pain and even answer ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ giving nurses and CNAs a realistic, hands-on experience as they train.
The Simulation Lab at Gulf Coast Medical Center opened earlier this month and includes fully-equipped intensive care and medical-surgical rooms, each with its own high-fidelity simulator and patient monitor.
“The high-fidelity simulators are very realistic,” said Traci Grove, MSN, RN, simulation education coordinator. “We can manipulate different heart tones, lung sounds and bowel sounds. They have multiple airway features, including intubation and tracheostomy care and suctioning – and we have the ability to insert chest tubes, peripheral IVs and urinary catheters. It’s a real, hands-on experience.”
A control room between the simulation rooms enables facilitators to control the high-fidelity simulator mannequins and patient monitors to tailor scenarios for specific training needs.
“This takes our training to the next level,” Traci said. “We can design a fully immersive scenario around an event – a code blue, for example – if a unit needs training in that area.”
From the control room, the facilitators observe the participants through a one-way window so they have a direct view while manipulating bedside monitors and simulator responses. A recording system also captures audio, video, annotations, patient monitors and simulator data, so participants and facilitators can review the footage to identify successes and opportunities for improvement. The lab includes a debrief room for these post-simulation reflection sessions.
“It’s important for learners to suspend disbelief,” said Traci. “We want it to be exactly how it is on the unit so the participants can fully focus on the objectives for a certain scenario.”
“For me, simulation is creating that safe environment so we can practice the fundamental and complex skills that will allow our teams to provide safe, effective and efficient care,” said Mandi Mernin, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, supervisor of nursing professional development. “Our goal is to have a variety of high-fidelity and low-fidelity simulation centers across the health system – at all campuses and an off-site location.”
Mandi added that the simulation labs will provide opportunities for our physicians and other frontline team members to join together for scenario-based training.
“We can grow teams that trust each other, build on each other and provide excellent care for our patients and, in turn, improve the care of our community,” said Mandi. “It’s taking all our core values, especially education, and our commitment to excellence to the next level.”