The Professional Practice Lab

The Professional Practice Lab in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing uses state-of-the-art technology to provide valuable learning experiences to our student nurses in the art and science of caring. Here, the application of caring theory is represented and modeled in the demonstration of nursing responses to patient calls within a simulated environment. Patient (simulator) scenarios are designed to encompass Roach's Six Cs: Compassion, Competence, Confidence, Conscience, Commitment and Comportment.

Students are guided through reflection and dialogue to evaluate their clinical effectiveness and caring behaviors as they meet and care for our "family" of five mid- to high-fidelity patient simulators. While critically thinking about and responding to each patient's unique needs, students develop confidence and increase their competency and understanding. Faculty endeavor to provide multiple opportunities for students to develop communication skills while learning to prioritize and deliver safe patient care.

Benefits of the Professional Practice Lab

The high fidelity simulator environment of the Professional Practice Lab provides a wide array of benefits to nursing students and faculty:

• Increases students' comfort and confidence so they can focus on the patient.
• Goes beyond technical proficiency and scientific knowledge to include practice in the human and compassionate aspects of nursing care.
• Provides realistic, real-time simulation of patient conditions in a controlled environment.
• Allows for repeated skills practice.
• Gives students the experience of thinking about and responding to each patient without incurring the risks inherent in the actual clinical setting.
• Offers faculty the opportunity to provide experiences in high-risk specialty areas (such as maternity and pediatrics) that have limited availability for student placements. Provides student the opportunity to practice the low-frequency/high-risk situations without risk to patients.
• Provides opportunity to stop and assess performance, with immediate feedback from faculty.

Our very own Lynn Hospital!

Lynn Hospital is our very own simulated hospital environment. Students are now able to learn medication retrieval and administration with our state-of-the-art MedDispense Automated Dispensing System as well as learning healthcare information technology with the Cerner academic education solution. We are excited to prepare students to enter the clinical environment with skill in using electronic health records and automated medication administration.