UMass Boston nursing students resuscitated a woman mid-flight, saved a choking infant, and performed CPR on an unconscious man at the JFK/UMass station last week— all without ever leaving the second floor of the Quinn building, where the simulations took place in a digital lab equipped with projectors that allow for 360-degree immersive experiences.
The space was built out thanks to $3 million in federal funding secured by Congressman Stephen Lynch of South Boston, who was on hand to observe the students as they trained in real-time as part of the launch of the facility.
Said an impressed Lynch, “We desperately need new nurses, and we have so many young men and women who would love to become part of that profession. It’s actually the perfect storm for us in terms of having the talent here in the Greater Boston area and now having this facility as well to make that happen.”
UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said the labs are designed to “train the next generation of nurses in home care technologies in settings that replicate where they will deliver health care when working as nurses.”
He added: “With UMass Boston’s nursing students staying in Boston at a rate of over 81 percent, and very significantly, mirroring the patient population they serve, they are in a unique position to meet the healthcare needs of a growing demographic of patients who are aging or disabled, or continue to experience healthcare disparities.”
Among the students on hand for the lab dedication were seniors Clare Alanguilan, Fasha Banson, Luzeica Cardoso, Brittany Castillo-Rivera, Daniva Teixeira, and Yailiz Monteiro.
UMass Boston first-semester seniors used the simulation lab to practice how to respond to an unconscious man at the JFK/UMass station. Cassidy McNeeley photo
Monteiro was one of three students who demonstrated how to administer CPR to one life-like mannequin depicted as an unconscious man sprawled out on Old Colony Avenue next to the JFK/UMass station. As Monteiro began chest compressions, the room echoed with the sounds of passing trains, nearby traffic, and panicked bystanders.
“One of my worst fears, Monteiro said, “is to actually have this situation occur where we don’t have the normal supplies or the hospital facility, or people.” After completing the exercise, she said, “This is completely a different situation. Seeing somebody on the ground just made it so much more realistic than seeing a patient on a hospital bed.”
Rosemary Samia, the director of the Center for Clinical Education & Research and the clinical lab and simulation coordinator at UMass, said the space allows the students to apply their skills outside of an acute care setting.
When asked what other scenarios the rooms could replicate, she said, “As many as we want to develop. We could turn this into home care, but it’s really so much more than that. Nurses provide care in lots of different environments.”
With the addition of this lab, students in the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences can embrace hands-on learning experiences that can’t be obtained in a normal classroom space.
“A lot of courses are still very heavily formatted with lecture. It’s very instructor-centric,” Samia told The Reporter. “What this does is it flips that entirely. As we see students become more engaged, they are more apt to retain the knowledge because they have to think through the scenarios on their own without the instructor.”
Though the students are on their own in the lab, their instructors and classmates are just across the hall. “We have outfitted the space with cameras and microphones so that everything that’s happening in this room can also be observed from across the hall in a debriefing space,” said Samia.
Those rooms will allow instructors to observe and record students’ interactions and provide feedback so that they can learn from their mistakes. “We can run the simulations over and over again,” Samia said.
Graduate nursing student Cecilia Menzinger added that, “this is a more interactive environment, and the students get to practice those skills repeatedly. It makes it more memorable and also enables them to apply the knowledge they learn in real-life scenarios.”
The bit of anxiety and fear the students felt is exactly the point. “I think when you can create an environment that’s going to mirror where somebody is going to be living and practicing, that is just going to make the students feel even more confident,” Samia said. “We heard it directly from the students today, after doing just one scenario. We need to tap into that.”
