in this context it's about taking students in to a --either a medium fidelity or high

fidelity-- simulated experience where they can interact with a mechanical doll or a mannequin.

I think when you see the mannequin, although it's plastic, it's ahh... it does have the

ability to change vital signs, which of course the students are so focused on. It has the

ability to speak, it has the ability to change vital signs, it has physiological responses,

so if you give it a medication you can elicit a response from it. It can cough or it can

pretend to vomit, or you can apply oxygen to it. So it has a multitude of things that

you can do with it and it can help us understand the concepts behind it. So when I have a group

of students around a simulator I try to get them to think of it as real as possible, even

though it's plastic, because these are some of the things they'll see in the clinical

environment. It is using community practice again as well, but really I'm trying to be

--because I'm a med-surg nurse and a critical care nurse-- I'm trying to get them to see

what --if they do something or if they can't think of something-- this is what will happen.

I take it into a large classroom and introduce a concept and will actually apply the theory

to the simulator in that session or class, in front of seventy students. It's a little

intimidating for a group of students to be told to come down and perform, but they are

warned, and what I usually do is have volunteers. And so many students email be and say after

the simulation, they maybe weren't involved directly, but they were a peripheral participant

and they were able to apply what they learned from that experience into their clinical contexts.

I think that the way I learned, which was a few years ago, was a little different from

how students learn today. I think students are extremely savvy in their technology abilities

and plus I think they like to learn from a group or within a group and they like to learn

by doing. So a few years ago I was able to use a simulator in a pharmacology class and

take the students from the table to the bedside and saw such an improved learning and such

a more engaged learning experience from them. They couldn't wait to come to class and they

couldn't wait to apply what they had learned. And I think it's our job as facilitators to

engage students in learning. These students that I'm teaching --these nursing students--

will some day be taking care of me, so I want them to know and I want them to learn effectively

and I think simulation is one of those methods that we can use to do that or accomplish that.

So if they're looking for using, different pieces of technology --in particular simulation,

or even simple role-playing opportunities-- find someone who's done it before and who's

comfortable with it and mentor with that person. It doesn't have to be formal mentoring, but

certainly I think that experience sometimes provides a great deal of advice and should

be maybe considered more worthy.