Simulations help students experience working as a team

Hanceville, AL — Students in Health Science programs at Wallace State Community College were dealing with patients suffering chest pains, asthma attacks, overdoses and more during simulations this week. Luckily, the patients were either mannequins or other students playing the role of patients.

The Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education (Sim-IPE) sessions presented a variety of scenarios for students to work through in terms of diagnosing and treating each patient, including working with other departments to provide care and even dealing with family members anxious for information about their loved one.

The rooms of the Simulation Center inside the School of Nursing and Center for Science were a hive of activity as students from multiple health science programs put their training to work in simulated scenarios ranging from motor vehicle accidents to pediatric asthmas attacks. Students from Emergency Medical Services transported a patient to the ER, where students from Nursing, Respiratory Therapy, Diagnostic Imaging, Medical Assisting, Medical Laboratory Technology and Health Information Technology were on hand or on stand-by to aid in the patient’s care. Dental students were even involved in a scenario where their patient suffered a health emergency and required medical care.

A Respiratory Therapy student at Wallace State Community College works through a scenario for a pediatric asthma attack during a simulation this week. 

Behind the scenes were Wallace State Health Science faculty, who ran the scenarios from the Simulation Center control rooms, speaking through the mannequins used in the simulation or acting as doctors taking the information the students provided and placing orders for care as needed.

The scenarios are held twice a year to give students in multiple programs the experience of working as a team with students from other programs to provide care.

“It benefits the students because they actually know now what everyone does,” said Tiffanie Doyle, Simulation Coordinator for the Department of Nursing Education. “A lot of times when you start working in a hospital, you all work in your own world of how you’re going to do things to take care of your patient, but you may not understand on the other side what the other department has to do or what they need to do to take care of their patient. It shows them that everyone can work together and utilize each other to take care of our patients out in the hospital the best way that they know how.”

“It’s very helpful the fact that I get to work hand-in-hand with other disciplines,” said Wallace State Nursing student Jordan Campbell. “I get to do my assessment and do my job while also taking a step back and being able to watch and get a good, firm understanding of what the other departments are responsible for and what they do and how that all together, in a beautiful little map, helps the patient.” 

Most Wallace State Health Science programs are currently accepting applications for admission in Fall 2023. To review Health Science Division programs, visit www.wallacestate.edu and click on the Programs link.

Priority registration for Summer 2023 semester will begin April 3, with registration for all students on April 6. Summer 2023 classes begin May 24. For more information, visit www.wallacestate.edu, call 256.352.8000 or come by Lion Central in the lobby of the James C. Bailey Center Monday-Wednesday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or Friday 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Nursing students at Wallace State Community College work through a scenario using one of the mannequins during simulation this week.