THUNDER BAY — Hands-on learning provides many useful skills and techniques that cannot be learned from a book or a lecture, and this is especially important for students who will be caring for patients in the health care field.
“It’s really essential you encounter as many things as possible in a lab so you have an opportunity to practice those skills before going in and doing them for the first time in clinical,” said Erin Hamilton, a third-year nursing student at Lakehead University and vice-president of the Lakehead University Nursing Association.
“It’s about building that confidence so students are more competent care providers.”
Students in the nursing program at Lakehead University are building that confidence with the help of the latest nursing lab, which includes the latest health care technology and fully functioning patient mannequins.
The 10-bed lab located in the Braun Building provides a simulated hospital or care home environment to allow students an opportunity to practice their skills before moving on to clinical and real-world settings.
Kristen Jones-Bonofiglio, director and associate professor in the school of nursing, said the new lab will primarily be used by first and second-year nursing students.
“We are thrilled to have this additional space for our students to learn in,” she said. “It really opens up opportunities for our students to learn in a safe environment and build up their confidence and competence.”
Students can perform assessments on the mannequins using the same equipment they will encounter in health care settings, such as IV and feeding pumps and vital sign monitors.
This is the third nursing lab at the Lakehead campus in Thunder Bay, with a fourth one being added in the near future.
Jones-Bonofiglio said the technology and teaching methods in the nursing field have come a long way in recent years.
“When I was a nursing student, we used to give injections on oranges, now we have all kinds of fancy equipment that really help our students to be competent and confident when they go into their clinical experiences and help them be able to adapt and be critical thinkers when they are looking after patients and families,” she said.
Jessica Melanson, a clinical and lab technologist for the school of nursing, said the additional lab space also provides more opportunities for students to learn.
“With more beds that we have, we have smaller group sizes, so they all get that chance to practice those IVs, practice those medications, those full catheters,” she said. “In a two-hour lab, they might be able to do all students hands on the entire time, which is really wonderful, whereas if we had fewer beds we wouldn’t really get that opportunity.”
The new lab was made possible with the reallocation of space in the Braun Building and existing funding from the university.
For Hamilton and her fellow students, the new lab space very important as it will allow them to train with up-to-date equipment and create better standards of care among the next generation of nurses.
“It’s essential,” she said. “For a student going into clinical placement, it is rather intimidating and you are already in a position of power with your clients, so you want ot make sure you are deserving of that and you have the proper basis of knowledge before you go in and care for your patients or residents in long-term care.”
