The College of St. Mary is holding an open house Sunday for its new nursing skills lab and simulation center.
Christi Glesmann, Program Director for the ASN and BSN programs, says the college needed the facilities because it’s difficult for students to get into clinical sites these days.
Glesmann says the simulation labs will give student nurses the opportunity to gain hands-on experience they might not otherwise get.
For example, she says all nurses are expected to know how to handle a Code Blue or heart failure.
"Often times they are not going to get that opportunity in the clinical setting because if that situation does occur in a clinical setting, those nurses and those physicians take over. And we want them to do that because we want to put patient safety first. But the students need to know how to be able to do that. They need to be able to practice that so these simulation centers will enable us to do that.”
The open house takes place this Sunday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on the College of St. Mary campus, in Walsh Hall, 7000 Mercy Road.
In addition to nursing skills practice labs, the facility features simulation labs focused on labor and delivery, pediatrics, and home health.