Simulation

Simulations STINK! We had to do one where we had to pretend to be the family of a patient that just died. Literally I had to act like my mother died right before my eyes. I literally froze. I had NO idea what to say. We are not graded on SIMs. Our teachers say it is just a way to expose us to situations. I see how it helped many people in my class because there were people who were sobbing or unable to complete the SIM due to emotions or past experiences. However, SIM is and always will be my least favorite part of nursing school.

I hate sim lab days because they are SO long but I feel they are a vital part of learning while in nursing school. It's a safe place to make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. I'd much rather mess up on a sim manikin than on a real patient! You have your fellow students to help if it's a "code" situation and if not, if it's an individual scenario, stop, breathe and think it through. I love my instructor, she makes a good point that students without fail do some of the weirdest things and completely forget everything all because they are being watched closely. Once you are the one watching your classmate do his/her scenario, suddenly it is easier for you to recall how to do tasks/skills and critically think.

lol there is a pin on Pinterest that reads, "The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action." Recently, I did a sim for school and ended up 1) not getting a good handoff report from the medic students, 2) shocking a peds patient in PEA and 3) only pushing one dose of Epi... EPIC FAIL. Again, I am glad that it was a manikin and not a real patient! I learned a lot and will likely never make that same mistake again. I want to get used to being in those high stress situations because I want to be an ER and flight nurse in the future.

If your instructor gives you some kind of scenario ahead of time like ours was and it relates to what you just learned in theory, take the time to do a good write-up or prep and it should help the day of sim. Just chalk it up to a learning experience!

This is our school's first year to do a Sim Lab. I'm literally get nauseated thinking about having to do mine later this month! I am terrible at role playing and pretend! I know the best thing is to just "forget" it's not real and just act like it's real life, but that's what I'm awful at! I really, really hope mine goes ok. Ours is counting as a clinical so if you fail the Sim Lab you fail a clinical.

I am not sure how everyone's SIM works, but at my school we are grouped with 3 or 4 other students into groups and everyone has their chance to be the "head nurse". My recommendation is .....use your classmates. Usually when you forget how to do something, one of your other classmates will remember and vice versa. You think better when you are not in the hot seat! Our SIM's weren't graded either, it was strictly a learning experience.

Ughhh I hate sim labs too! I really don't think they're that great for learning. It's really hard to treat a rubber dummy like a human being. Then on top of pretending this dummy is human and trying to talk and treat them you knw you have all these people watching. I don't have trouble in clinical but i have always ahd a hard time with simmulation. I know some really love it but for me, not so muc.

Op, I feel exactly like you do. I am repeating my final semester due to the sh!tshow that was sims. Part of our sim grade is skill check offs on the dummy. 2 professors watching, a mechanical dummy with unrealistic veins and they expect you to do things exactly as they taught, or you are wrong. That's bs. There are more than one way to effectively and efficiently start an iv while maintaining good technique you know?

Also, I'm a horrendous actress, and I feel like that is half of the grade. Sims are a bother.

And yes, I'm doing excellent this semester, but I am still bitter! Hah