Immersive learning program for nursing students

A patient with late-stage pancreatic cancer is refusing anti-depression medication and has signed a Do Not Resuscitate order against his family's wishes. The family is frantic at the patient's bedside, and patients in nearby beds are becoming alarmed and agitated. The nurse overseeing this patient's care has a dilemma on her hands that has nothing to do with providing basic nursing skills.

This is a typical day in University of Phoenix's new immersive learning nursing center, with practical scenarios designed by a "brain trust" of University of Phoenix nursing faculty in what has become the next generation of nursing education.

University of Phoenix will debut its immersive learning center featuring state-of-the-art wireless high-fidelity SIM Man 3G "patient" mannequins that cry, talk, sweat, cough and breathe; and a high-fidelity baby that reacts astonishingly similar to its live counterpart, at a private reception and grand opening on Thursday, Oct. 29, across from its Elwood Street campus in Phoenix.

The 4,100-square-foot Phoenix center will be the first of several high-fidelity, immersive nursing centers the University is planning to roll out at campuses throughout the United States, with pending expansion plans that include the University's Modesto, Calif.; Denver and Honolulu, Hawaii locations. University of Phoenix invested more than $400,000 to renovate and equip the Phoenix nursing center with the latest technology and resources that consist of a high-tech control room for a lab technician and faculty facilitator to program the high-fidelity mannequins; fully equipped, simulated-reality hospital room with four beds and patient monitors, a procedure room with two high-fidelity mannequins wired for live and recorded video monitoring, an observation and debriefing room for playing back recorded video, computer lab with 12 stations, and traditional classroom and conference space.

The University is introducing the immersive learning program in its LPN to BSN degree program, with plans to integrate it into other nursing degree programs. Faculty facilitators are highly trained on the immersive learning approach beyond the University's standard requisites for teaching. Their rigorous training includes 16 hours of clinical instruction, 8 hours of mentoring and a minimum of 16 hours of prior supervised teaching in a practical learning environment before they facilitate their first learning experience with nursing students.

Immersive learning and the use of simulation labs are valuable tools to train students in the skills and tasks they'll use in their future nursing profession. A learning experience in a simulated clinical environment that mirrors the students' real-world clinical or hospital rotation provides a safe, non-life-threatening atmosphere in which to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and ultimately results in improved risk management because of the student's higher quality of care and immersive training.

"What makes University of Phoenix's immersive learning environment different is that our nursing students are putting both their clinical and critical thinking skills to work," said Pam Fuller, dean of the University's College of Nursing. "In short, they are assessing a patient's condition, prioritizing their responsibilities and actions, communicating what needs to be done, and then acting on the conclusions they draw from the situation at hand."

Tracy Chesney, director of nursing, University of Phoenix College of Nursing, agrees that the critical thinking skills are just as important as the clinical skills training for students. She cites research that indicates that more than 72 percent of patient errors that occur in a clinical setting are related to communication and assessment skills rather than their proficiency in physical, task-oriented skills.

In order to get its nursing students to achieve this higher level of critical thinking, University of Phoenix's "brain trust," a leadership team of medical professionals from every facet of nursing and from its campuses nationwide, developed more than two dozen "scenarios" that are played out daily in the immersive learning center. Scenarios may involve the SIM Man 3G mannequin, high-fidelity baby or other "patients" to engage students in an array of medical and behavioral situations that encompass nursing specialty areas, such as acute medical-surgical, obstetrics, pediatrics, community health, maternity and family issues and leadership.

Chesney notes that the most important learning comes after students have participated in one of the scenarios. They join faculty and fellow students in the observation/debriefing room to review their actions -- and reactions -- to a particular situation and assess the outcome.

"Usually, our faculty don't need to say a word; our nursing students already have determined how they could improve their response to each scenario," Chesney said. "That's very important to this process. It allows the students to formulate their own conclusions and solutions. The immersive learning augments what students are doing in their real-life clinical rotations and helps them become better thinkers, and ultimately, better nurses."