Human Patient Simulators

Nurses General Nursing

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What is your opinion of the human patient simulator labs replacing some of the clinical time? My school is considering changing the model up to using the HPS labs more and more. Like instead of 16 weeks of clinical time, some of that clinical time would be spent in the HPS lab like 6 weeks of HPS time.

They are also considering allowing people to decide if they want to do both peds and OB clinicals and instead doing just one or the other. They would still cover the content.

It's about 5 years out. Our state board does allow HPS hours to count towards clinical hours.

I am mixed. Interacting with patients is good, but you also sometimes don't get that exciting clinicals. However it does show what nursing is and it's up to the instructor to make it better. Like 2nd semester we tried team nursing and it sucked. Then we tried not researching our patients and doing it like the nurses do where we get report for a day.

However, the HPS would allow for a controlled environment. We already do mock codes in there.

Part of it is we have a lot of nursing schools. We are competing against both RN and LPN programs for spots. We have at least 8 RN schools and at least a dozen LPN schools.

I think it'll be different.

Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

This is the sim we used during school.. This type of sim is used in hospital's across the country, EMS as well as military training..

Link provided below.. Hope this helps some of you understand what we are talking about.

SimMan® 3G

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

And here...http://vectorblog.org/2011/12/almost-as-real-as-real-simulations-mannequins-and-medical-training/]

Delnor Hospital's new simulation lab offers hands-on training with mannequins - Chicago Tribune[/url]

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To my ears, the phrase "human patient simulator" sounds like it's describing an actor paid to "be" a patient in a simulated teaching scenario.

There actually are people who do this to earn money, my nursing school utilized them. They would pretend to have a diagnosis or complication and we were supposed to detect it from the "symptoms" they presented. Not as good as actual clinical experience, of course, but better than.... whatever those mannequin things are called.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

Simulation is used a lot in Medicine in acquiring skills. This technology has gotten so advanced that you can practically perform many procedures on a mannequin with almost real-life situations. Getting a feel for how an equipment works and practicing on a non-human can be a safe way to hone psychomotor skills and hand eye coordination required for many procedures in Medicine before actually performing the skill on a patient. Humans have also been used to simulate patients in a few learning opportunities in clinical practice. We initially learned performing GYN and male reproductive exams on paid "actors" in NP school. I do agree that simulation should not be included as part of the hours required for completion of clinical time that is spent with real patients.

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Wow, I think you took ,my statement a bit too far and out of content... The sims are great for the things I listed, simply used as learning tool in a safe environment.. .

What you did not pay attention too was the fact that I said they could be used in addition to clinical's and clinical time should not be cut short. I never stated they should replace face time etc..I understand fully how much face time, communication, time management etc is.

I took the OP's statement about his/her school's considering replacing more clinical time with sim time seriously. You can never get enough clinical time in school to be remotely competent in the areas I mentioned and I would be very concerned that an educational program would decrease that in such a cavalier fashion. And the part about "covering the content" really frosted my buns.

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Wow, wish they had this when I was in nursing school. I can understand how this could be very useful. I don't believe it should replace clinical time at all. The sim class would be a great supplement to the program and should be a requirement.

Supplement to clinical teaching hours, sure, great lab tool. Replacement for actual clinical hours, no.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.
I took the OP's statement about his/her school's considering replacing more clinical time with sim time seriously. You can never get enough clinical time in school to be remotely competent in the areas I mentioned and I would be very concerned that an educational program would decrease that in such a cavalier fashion. And the part about "covering the content" really frosted my buns.

And I completely agree, however, you quoted my post and highlighted one line out of it. I felt it was a personal attack against myself and education that also utilized sim man..

Carry on :)

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And I completely agree, however, you quoted my post and highlighted one line out of it. I felt it was a personal attack against myself and education that also utilized sim man..

Carry on :)

You may not feel that way, but there are many people who think that training on sims is all you really need to be a nurse. I wished to highlight some aspects of patient assessment that a lot of students wouldn't necessarily be aware of. That was the one line I highlighted. I ought to have cut more of your post to make it clearer that it was that one concept that set me off.

...and Keep Calm. :)

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Specializes in Oncology.

We had mannequins, but no actual simulators when I was in school. I remember learning blood draws and IV starts on the fake arms. Does anyone actually find that beneficial? You could hit those hose veins with a tooth pick with your eyes closed, and they never move.

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