Five days of simulations, covering situations from complications during a C-section birth to how medical professionals should intubate someone who has vomited, aimed to better prepare future nurse anesthetists.
Texas Wesleyan University held its annual Simulation Symposium that brings nationwide experts to guide second-year nurse anesthesia residents before they leave for clinicals in January.
Kylee Holden is a third-year nursing anesthesia student who attended the symposium last year before heading off to clinicals at JPS Health Network. As an instructor at the conference this year, she noted how important the experience was.
“It was really valuable to make it even just a tiniest bit more comfortable going into starting our clinicals,” Holden said.
The Fort Worth school has the nation’s largest graduate nursing anesthesia program.
Brian Cornelius, director of the Texas Wesleyan’s nurse anesthesia simulation center, said the symposium, which first began in 2015, allows students to go through low-occurring, high-risk situations in a safe environment rather than a hospital setting.
“When they leave there, it won’t be a controlled setting,” Cornelius said. “When you get to the operating room, the next time they see it, it may be totally uncontrolled.”
More than a dozen stations across the campus were set up with state-of-the-art mannequins and cutting-edge ultrasound equipment, giving students the opportunity to practice detailed simulated needle injections.
Students also had the opportunity to practice on cadavers with artificial pulses. The technology was developed by Maverick Medical Education, a health education resource developed by Texas Wesleyan grads.
In previous years, the symposium was much smaller, Cornelius noted. Oftentimes it all took place in one room, leading to students tripping over each other.
Growing the program physically across four buildings allowed the university to provide better instruction and continue closing the gap between classroom instruction and clinical practice.
“Now they really are getting the latest, greatest and best education we can offer them,” Cornelius said.
Students receive instruction from certified registered nurse anesthetists, oftentimes graduates of Texas Wesleyan. Third-year university nursing students such as Holden, who are already at clinicals, also provide guidance.
Cornelius said the peer guidance is extremely helpful in preparing students for clinical practice.
About 20 industry sponsors attended the symposium, giving nursing students the opportunity to connect with company representatives prior to entering the professional realm.
Several of the sponsors remarked how the students coming out of Texas Wesleyan’s nursing anesthesia program are able to hit the ground running in the clinical setting.
For Cornelius, it validates the existence of the symposium.
“That they would take their time and pay money to come here and meet these people face-to-face early on is a huge difference and a big deal to us,” Cornelius said.
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.