Well I think that role play --simulation itself-- can mean a variety of different things, but
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.