EMU nursing students are confronted with messy, real-life situations, rather than ideal ones, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing Program Director and Associate Professor Laura Yoder said, “Nursing school is a time of learning ideal nursing. And, here we are being confronted right now with the real-world challenges that exist.”
According to Yoder, nursing students must cumulate “at least 500 clinical hours” in order to graduate. The EMU Nursing Program has found innovative ways to meet this requirement through a combination of virtual simulations, simulations in the on-campus nursing lab, and in-person clinicals.
Fourth-year nursing student Carly Gingerich is impressed by how the EMU Nursing Program is handling the situation. “They’ve done a lot to get us into the hospitals. I know there have been other situations where hospitals turned down other students from coming into the hospitals. So, that is a testament to the quality of our nursing program. And that we have good students and good faculty. That’s something I’ve been proud of.”
Currently, around 90 EMU nursing students work in various local health facilities to gain clinical hours. Third-year nursing student Janessa Zimmerman said she worked “on a hall that had one side as a covid unit, and one side that wasn’t” during her clinical placement in Fall 2020. Fourth-year nursing students Natalie Stoltzfus and Gingerich are both finishing a nine-week clinical placement at Augusta Health this weekend. Third-year Tarynn Clark is placed on a Pediatrics floor at Sentara RMH.
Yoder stated that “up to 25 percent of a student’s clinical hours may be from simulations.” They use a simulation product called vSim by Laerdal. Yoder explained, “Students control a nurse avatar in the scenario.” Also, students have simulations with manikin patients in the nursing lab on the third floor of the Campus Center.
Students reported pros and cons to clinical simulations. Zimmerman said, “Virtual simulations are a lot different from the hospital clinical hours. I find it frustrating having so many virtual simulations, but it’s understandable, and there is still a lot to learn from them as well.” Stoltzfus views the simulations in a different light. “Honestly, med surge in the hospital is very uninspiring as a future nurse. So, the simulations are more fast-paced critical-thinking,” said Stoltzfus.
Gingerich feels she can “make nursing decisions” with more freedom in the simulation labs. “In the simulation we get to make the decisions, since we aren’t putting anyone at risk if we make a mistake,” Gingerich said. Clark works with Floyd, a manikin in the Campus Center nursing lab, for clinical simulations in a Pediatrics course. “He is a highly functioning simulator that talks, has breath sounds, chest movements, pulses, and we can take his blood pressure.”
Simulations are proving especially helpful this semester because some hospitals are limiting nursing students’ time on the hospital floor. “There’s a rule now that we can’t be there past 11:30 a.m.,” Zimmerman said. Stoltzfus elaborated that after leaving Augusta Health, “we come back to school, go to the [simulation] lab, and our professor puts us through a certain process that we have to think through.”
The pandemic offers nursing students unique experiences that they may not have had otherwise. Stoltzfus said, “We are able to give people the [COVID] vaccine as part of our community health hours.”
Some students have had the opportunity to receive the COVID vaccine. Zimmerman said, “I’m really lucky and fortunate– I have been fully vaccinated. Augusta Health has been doing COVID-19 clinics and they were open to vaccinate EMU students.” Clark stated, “My desire to get the vaccine extended far beyond myself…I was not necessarily worried about my own health, but rather the health of the more vulnerable individuals in our community.”
Stoltzfus worked at a retirement community over winter break and witnessed a COVID outbreak, which stemmed from healthcare staff who refused to get the COVID vaccine. Gingerich noted that distrust and suspicion of healthcare providers is more prevalent in clinical settings now. “I think in order to be a good nurse, it is really important that my patients trust me. As nurses, we kind of pride ourselves on being some of the most trustworthy people in the healthcare system. So, to see that in jeopardy or being threatened right now is scary.”
Gingerich and Stoltzfus both emphasized the importance of education in the healthcare system. “So, then it comes back to education, because a lot of people have a fear about the COVID vaccine, because yeah, we don’t know all of the long-term effects,” Stoltzfus said.
