Dylan, a simulator to help prepare Nursing students for real-life clinical situations

Simulators at the UBC Okanagan’s School of Nursing

Stan the Man blinks and breathes, but he’s not a real person. This high-tech human replica is used by students at UBC Okanagan’s School of Nursing , offering them a risk-free opportunity to experience procedures and medical conditions – such as a heart attack – that might not present themselves during their clinical practicum.

Second-year student Gillian Ellis admits that her first encounter with Stan was a little scary. “You can ask him questions like, ‘how are you feeling today?’ and he’ll respond appropriately, depending on the scenario.”

Clinical instructors program Stan before class, and students arrive prepped with readings on what to expect from the “patient.” The instructor speaks into a microphone from a booth, answering questions for Stan. From the booth, the instructor can also change Stan’s health status, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and the presence of peripheral pulses.

The sessions are recorded and monitored by the instructor; the students then review their assessment, pinpointing areas where they might have responded differently.

“One of the things I find most valuable about the simulator is that you get to work as a team,” Gillian says. “You bounce ideas off each other and find out where each person has strengths.”

With a $125,000 gift from the Sutherland Foundation , the School of Nursing has just purchased a pediatric simulator. This replica of a human child will give students important experience as they learn to care for critically ill children.

Gillian believes that these simulators help to ease the transition that nursing students make to the clinical setting. “It really prepares you for the situations you’ve read about in your textbooks,” she says. “Experiencing them with the simulator makes you more comfortable when you have to face the same situation with a real person.”