Multi-patient pediatric simulation showcases application of Epic technology 

Senior nursing main Michaela Eberhardt needs to work with kids, so this simulation is ideal for her. Two pediatric sufferers: one six-year-old and one six-month-old. The six-year-old has recurring seizures, whereas the six-month-old is in respiratory misery as a consequence of RSV.  

Eberhardt should evaluate their medical data, decide which affected person to prioritize, deal with each and clarify to her classmates what she’d inform the youngsters’s dad and mom about ongoing care. 

It’s the perfect coaching for the actual factor. 

“Our sims actually are how it’s in the actual world,” Eberhardt says. “You need to use your essential pondering and work as a crew to determine what you’ll do subsequent.” 

Undergraduates within the Transitioning into Skilled Nursing Observe course should face a bunch of those simulations over their last semester. As a part of their sim work, these future nurses are additionally required to chart affected person information on Epic’s Lyceum instructional platform. Marquette turned Epic’s first undergraduate nursing consumer in fall 2023, permitting college students to entry well being data software program that’s thought-about business customary throughout most main well being care programs. 

Because the collaboration started, the Faculty of Nursing and Epic have labored arduous to find out one of the best ways to make use of Lyceum to reinforce simulation. 
 
“College students have entry to Epic know-how at their scientific websites, however they must cope with loads there; right here at simulation, they’ve time to mess around with the software program and get acquainted with it,” says Casey Behm, a nursing simulation teacher. 

“We’re studying proper together with Marquette; it is a true collaboration as an alternative of simply offering a product,” says Maire Jacobs, an educational designer and coach at Epic. 

College students went via the simulations with the attention that others have been observing them the entire time. Jacobs and fellow coach Claire Eckerle have been seeing how college students interacted with the well being data software program. Their classmates and sim teacher sat in a debriefing room down the corridor, watching on displays as they tended to the mannequins. 

Whereas the sensation of being watched makes some college students nervous, they settle down after they notice that simulation is a secure place to make errors.  

“Typically now we have points with the IV pumps,” Behm says. “We had a pump that was beeping as a result of the treatment was full, and several other college students turned off that complete pump quite than simply turning off the treatment and leaving the fluid drip going. For this reason we do simulations: to appropriate issues like that in a collaborative, supportive atmosphere.” 

After the simulation is full, college students are led into the debriefing room for an analysis of the train. Contributors use whiteboards with totally different coloration ink for numerous sorts of suggestions: inexperienced for issues that went nicely, crimson for issues that may be improved and blue for instructed adjustments. 

“The individuals within the classroom watch you write down all the things on the board — what you have been doing, how the affected person responded, all the things — as a result of the individuals within the sim have a tough time remembering what they simply did. It helps to evaluate all the things on the finish,” Eberhardt says. 

College students should full another step after leaving the simulation lab: log into Lyceum and document the affected person information.  
 
These future nurses are getting expertise now doing pre- and post-documentation in Epic, and as their comfort-level with Epic will increase, they may begin practising documenting in actual time throughout simulations. 

“If they’ve seen the know-how earlier than senior yr, it turns into simply one other software, not a lot totally different than studying the monitor or administering oxygen,” Jacobs says. “There’s a future the place college students have that very same familiarity with Epic via use of Lyceum.” 

The suggestions cycle between Marquette and Epic has produced insights that Epic hopes can be utilized to broaden Lyceum’s effectiveness. 

The Clark Corridor simulation laboratory solely has a number of weeks extra of use till all its provides are moved to the faculty’s new house, David A. Straz, Jr., Corridor. The constructing, which spans greater than 100,000 sq. toes, has roughly double the simulation house. This can enable extra college students to do multi-patient simulations just like the one Eberhardt and her friends accomplished. 

Because the services develop, the faculty can be hoping to construct out its use of Epic, creating synergy between bodily house and software program to permit for deeper pupil studying. 

“I can’t say sufficient nice issues concerning the Marquette Nursing program, and I’m so excited to make use of the talents I discovered right here to dive into the actual world,” Eberhardt says.