Students and faculty at University of Central Arkansas’ School of Nursing celebrated a significant milestone Tuesday. The Nabholz Center for Healthcare Simulation at UCA is now accredited in teaching/education by the international Society for Simulated Healthcare (SSH).
School of Nursing Director Sarah Gatto said the 17,000 sq. ft. center has worked towards accreditation from the SSH since 2016. The lengthy process involves rigorous training, curriculum development and documentation to ensure the program adheres to international standards on healthcare simulation programs.
Sarah Luyet is the center’s operation specialist and simulation center co-coordinator. She said the center gives healthcare students a chance to practice skills they may not regularly encounter in real-world situations.
“For example if you have, in childbirth, a patient that has a postpartum hemorrhage, we want them to be able to experience that and know what to do and what not to do.”
"In a non-emergent situation we can let them slowly think through what they should do at that time," Gatto said.
The simulation rooms look like a real hospital, complete with beds, intravenous pumps, monitors and patient-simulating manikins that appear to breathe, blink, and send out vital signs. Technicians control the manikins behind-the-scenes and can speak to students throughout the scenario through microphones hanging from the ceiling.
The center's collection of manikins can represent a wide variety of patients healthcare professionals will serve in their community. One manikin can simulate childbirth, complete with an infant manikin ready for delivery. Others are geriatric, showing students experience the difference in caring for elderly patients compared to younger patients. The center also has tools to simulate caring for patients with obesity, patients who have experienced a stroke, along with other health conditions.
Luyet said it’s important for students to practice communicating with patients at the same time as they learn to treat them. She said the students often start their simulation education with a simple check-up, which requires them to talk to patients and family members or caretakers throughout the visit.
After each scenario ends, students debrief with faculty and reflect on the decisions they made, how they administered care, and how to improve. Director Sarah Gatto said practicing in a simulated environment helps students adapt to real clinical situations quickly.
“What we have found is that a lot of the students, once they go out into the clinical areas and they’re working with real patients out in the healthcare settings, they’re more confident, they’re more confident, and they learn faster,” Gatto said.
“They walk right in and they’re comfortable right off the bat. So the learning is almost immediate.”
Gatto said this is only the second program in Arkansas to receive accreditation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
Luyet said the center hopes to earn accreditation from the SSH in more areas beyond teaching/education, but for the moment they’re focused on growing the programs they offer to students.
