The University of Notre Dame Australia has invested in state-of-the-art new nursing and midwifery training facilities that simulate the high-pressure environment of a real-world hospital to ensure our graduates are more job ready.
The facilities feature the latest advanced diagnostic and treatment equipment, along with high-fidelity training mannequins that can speak, groan or scream in pain, breathe, have a pulse, blood pressure, veins for injecting medications, and can even mimic medical emergencies such as a cardiac arrest.
Staff can remotely operate the mannequins from a separate control room, separated from the training room by a one way mirror, as their students have to respond to a variety of emergency and critical care scenarios.
School of Nursing and Midwifery National Head of School, Professor Karen-Clark Burg, said every effort had been made to recreate both the look and feel of a working hospital to ensure students are as job ready as possible on the day that they graduate.
“With a degree program like Nursing, what you learn from your textbooks is only half of the story – you also need to learn how to put that knowledge into practice while under a considerable amount of stress and pressure,” Professor Clark-Burg said.
“That is why the sense of realism and urgency our new training labs create is so important. You can actually feel the tension rising in the room as our students have to respond to needs of a deteriorating patient.
“In a scenario involving a cardiac arrest, the students may be required to perform CPR as alarms are blaring in the background from the monitoring equipment, or a defibrillator is charging up in readiness to administer a life-saving charge. Meanwhile, the patient can also be moaning or crying out in pain further adding to the sense of urgency.
“The only difference is that our labs are a consequence free environment where students are able to safely learn from their mistakes as they develop their skills.”
The new labs are fully operational on Notre Dame’s Fremantle, Sydney and Broome campuses. They were installed as part of a multi-million dollar overhaul of all of the University’s nursing and midwifery facilities as part of ongoing efforts to deliver the best education experience for our students.
“Across the board, our teaching spaces are now first class, ensuring that our students receive the best possible teaching and learning experience,” Professor Clark-Burg said.
“But of course there is no substitute for real-world training, which is why Notre Dame also requires its students to spend up to 30 per cent more time completing practical placements in real-life health settings than other universities.
“It is why our graduates are so highly sought after by employers and our recent investment in our facilities will continue to ensure our students have both the skills and confidence they need to hit the ground running when they graduate.”
Media Contact: media@nd.edu.au