New Simulation Learning Center Aims to Provide California with Highly Trained Nurses

The American healthcare system will experience a sea change within the next decade. The Baby Boomer generation is rapidly aging, rates for chronic issues like obesity and diabetes continue to rise, and there is a growing emphasis on preventative care. Healthcare systems across the country will soon experience an influx of older patients who require specialized, long-term care. Nurses will provide much of this care; however, many states are experiencing a shortage of nurses.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that registered nurses’ needs will grow by 15% from 2016 to 2026. The demand for licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and nursing assistants is expected to grow by 12% and 11%. By 2030, California will be short some 45,500 registered nurses, the most of any state.

These statistics paint a dire picture for states like California, seeing patient outcomes and safety suffer as understaffed healthcare systems struggle to provide adequate care. Fortunately, many educational institutions are stepping up to meet the demand for nurses. They are also using innovative methods to prepare future nurses to meet these patients’ needs and increase safety.

Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts is a private college offering California allied health and nursing programs. Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts has six (6) campuses: San Mateo, Concord, Sacramento, Modesto, Fresno, and Van Nuys. Students can earn an A.S. in Vocational Nursing, an A.S. in Nursing, a B.S. in Nursing (BSN), and many other healthcare degrees.

In 2016, the school formed the Program Advisory Committee (PAC), a group of stakeholders and programmatic directors who meet bi-annually with faculty and staff. These meetings give PAC members and faculty time to discuss programmatic updates and student training improvements.

This year’s meeting was especially significant as Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts established a new simulation center and started an RN program in 2018. The discussion focused on the school’s efforts to increase high-fidelity simulation in the sim center to earn accreditation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSIH).

GA uses Gaumard’s family of high-fidelity patient simulators to train its nursing students. In addition to various lower fidelity simulators and nursing skill trainers, students run through different patient care scenarios using the high-fidelity manikins Pediatric HAL, Super Tory, Noelle, Victoria, and Adult Hal.

GA’s simulation center is designed to look like a hospital. Each bay in the center represents a hospital unit, such as a delivery room, a Med-Surg unit, a pediatric suite, etc. This allows students to practice the nursing process’s core concepts and gain hands-on experience treating various patients and ailments before entering a real hospital.

Moreover, the scenarios are designed to engage the students’ critical thinking and clinical judgment skills to practice reasoning through a case and provide timely, accurate care. This contrasts with traditional clinical hours, wherein students observe an experienced nurse.

Furthermore, students can become overly cautious with an actual patient out of fear of harming them if they make a mistake. “I tell students: if you make a mistake, I want you to do it here. It’s better to make a mistake on the simulator than on a real patient,” says Shelvia Salvano, Simulation Coordinator for Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts.

Simulation scenarios encourage students to think critically about how best to treat the patient. Mistakes are not life-threatening in a simulation scenario. Instead, students learn from mistakes and are instructed to think critically about their choices while treating a simulated patient. This type of training can potentially reduce errors in the real world.

Specifically, scenarios are created with the latest educational materials and content matter experts help. Moreover, local hospital policies are consulted to make the entire experience as accurate as possible.

Therefore, the scenarios reflect the rigors and stress of a real emergency. Training in the sim center allows students to become accustomed to the work environment they will enter so they feel less overwhelmed when confronted with an emergency.

When the simulation is complete, students will participate in a debriefing session. Debriefing after a scenario is crucial for students training in the sim center. It allows them to discuss their performance in the scenario and find areas of improvement.

Ms. Salvano has gone through Stanford’s Simulation Instructor Course. Thus, she is up-to-date on evidence-based practices, knows how to design and implement simulation scenarios, and has well-developed debriefing skills.

This is the vision Dr. Larisa Revzina, Chief Academic Officer at Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts and one of the founding PAC members, had for the nursing program. She sought to give students space to receive a career-focused education while developing their professional skills.

Providing students with this training is especially important, considering that a growing lack of clinical training sites partially causes the healthcare workforce shortage. An increasing number of nursing schools cut the number of students they accept into their programs because access to clinical sites is limited. Thankfully, simulation allows students to get the hands-on clinical practice they need; therefore, schools can keep up with nurses’ demands.

California currently allows a maximum of 25% of the curriculum to be taught using simulation. GA’s investment in the sim center ensures their learners have no gaps in their education. Coupled with Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts’ commitment to providing students with a pipeline to employment partners after graduation, the investment could also help ease California’s nurse shortage.

To learn more about Pediatric HAL, Noelle, Victoria, Adult HAL, or any of Gaumard’s other patient simulators, please visit the Gaumard Website.