Elizabeth Fritz is listed in Maranatha’s college directory as an instructor in the Nursing Department, but she has recently become more popularly known as “The Wizard.”
“Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain,” Fritz said with a chuckle recently while operating “Hal,” the medical simulator purchased over the summer and now being employed as a learning tool by nearly 100 nursing students.
Fritz’s “Wizard of Oz” reference comes from Hal’s unique ability to be controlled remotely by an instructor in an adjacent room. Fritz is able to watch from behind a two-way window while students care for Hal and react to the variety of medical scenarios he presents.
Kristin Ulstad, a Skills Lab Instructor in Nursing Simulation at the University of Minnesota, was on campus during the week before classes began to help train Maranatha’s nursing faculty in the variety of ways Hal can be employed to help future nurses sharpen their skills.
Ulstad is considered a subject matter expert by Elsevier, an academic publishing company whose products include nursing texts and workbooks. She leads training workshops all across the country while also working as a clinical transplant nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul.
“We have really seen simulators become a standard over the last 10 years,” Ulstad said. “Nursing faculty members are stretched so thin, and many schools are really struggling for clinical placement sites. This is a safe learning environment. It’s a way for students to get their hands on a clinical site patient—but one they can’t kill.”
There is no record of Maranatha nursing students having killed any patients during clinical observations, but Hal offers a more efficient and diverse educational experience.
Nursing students will deal with Hal as he has a heart attack, high and low blood sugar, and post-surgical bleeding. The odds of them encountering similar experiences during standard clinical observations are low.
“If a student gives Hal too much morphine too quickly, he stops breathing,” Ulstad said. “It is immediate feedback. You know you made a mistake. A student would not have the opportunity to experience that with a real patient.”
Hal was purchased from Gaumard for about $40,000. More advanced simulators can cost up to $150,000. Maranatha nursing students must complete more than 1,000 hours of clinical experience. In Wisconsin, state nursing education requirements indicate that an hour with the simulator is the equivalent of two hours of hospital experience.
The former faculty workroom on the first floor of the Dining Complex was remodeled to create a mock hospital room for Hal as well as an observation and control area for the faculty member observing the session.
The ministry aspect of nursing remains a key component that Hal cannot replicate. That being said, his role as an educational opportunity cannot be overstated.
“It will not replace the interaction, the person-to-person component that nurses need to be very good at,” Ulstad said. “What Hal does is maximize the learning component for nitty-gritty nursing stuff. You have to know what to do when someone is bleeding. That won’t change.”
--Posted Sept. 29, 2009