Nursing Professor Puts Patient Simulators to the Test

By Michelle Hines, University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-5371

Posted 9-10-09

GREENSBORO — Dr. Laura Fero, professor of nursing, believes greater use of simulation technology in nursing schools can save lives. And she’s compiling the data to prove it.

The National League for Nursing is giving Fero a $10,495 grant to compare standard written critical thinking exam results with two forms of performance-based simulated scenarios. One will involve the use of videotaped vignettes and the other will require the students to perform in a live scenario using SimMan, a high-fidelity patient simulator.

She hopes to recruit about 80 final-semester senior BSN nursing students for the eight-hour testing experience, scheduled for March 2010.

Fero was a nursing administrator prior to earning her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. In that role, she watched new nurses struggle with their lack of experience, anxiety, and decreasing orientation periods.

“The reason I went back to do a PhD was because I was convinced there was an alternative, more effective system to prepare nurses,” she says. “Simulation, I believe, is that system. My goal is to put a light on how best to prepare and assess students.”

The School of Nursing has two SimMan machines. SimMan is essentially a mannequin that can be controlled by computer to exhibit various symptoms and stages of illness. Instructors, unseen by students, provide the voices necessary to mimic the reality of the situation.

The student volunteers will complete standard, written critical thinking assessments as well as an assessment consisting of a clinical scenario on videotape. They will also be tested individually in a live scenario using SimMan.

Each student will review his or her performance with a nursing instructor privately, identifying strengths and weaknesses.

Testing students individually is invaluable to them and to their future patients, Fero says. “We can replicate a real-life situation – what they will experience when they are by themselves in that first five or 10 minutes before additional help arrives. Students need exposure to that experience.”

Fero ran a trial in March 2009 with all 92 final-semester senior nursing students.

“The feedback was incredible,” she says. “It really opened students’ eyes about what they need to work on as they transition into full-time practice.”