TCU: NEWS & EVENTS

Second graders take the pulse of higher education




Fort Worth, TX

7/1/2011

By Ashley Franklin, MSN, RN, lecturer

 

Cheerful children’s laughter, happy squeals and questions, including, “Is he for real?” and “Are manikins ticklish?” abounded from the Nursing Simulation Lab in May. Almost 80 second grade students from Liberty Elementary School in White Settlement visited the Annie Richardson Bass Building for a field trip encouraging healthy lifestyles and higher education. 

 

Nursing faculty hosted the students in the undergraduate Simulation Lab where they interacted with high-fidelity manikins and learned about hand hygiene. In addition, the students selected healthy food choices from a group of simulated food items and learned about the importance of healthy hobbies.

 

Debra McLachlan, Ph.D., RN, associate professor of nursing, shared her hobby of painting ocean scenes on canvas. She encouraged the students to continue drawing and painting throughout elementary school and beyond, and she told them about her renewed interested in painting as an adult. “Hobbies, like painting, can make you feel good and happy as well as help relieve stress,” McLachlan said.

 

In the Simulation Lab, the second graders learned how to take their own pulse and count respirations. They also used a stethoscope, pen light and thermometer to assess their simulated patients. 

 

Harris College uses six adult high-fidelity manikins and three pediatric manikins as teaching tools with undergraduate nursing students to reinforce physical assessment, nursing process and safe patient care. TCU integrated high-fidelity simulation into the baccalaureate nursing curriculum in 2006. The Simulation Lab had 1,308 undergraduate student encounters in the Spring 2011 semester. 

 

“Simulation offers learners of all ages a safe place to practice skills and think critically about nursing care,” said Mary Beth Walker, MS, RN, assistant director for simulation. “We are happy to host the Liberty Elementary students and introduce them to nursing as a profession.”

 

The field trip was the third in the partnership between TCU Nursing and White Settlement ISD, which began in 2008 as part of the College Bound program through the College of Education.