Proposals

Abstract

Undergraduate and graduate students leverage the School of Nursing Simulation Center in their transition from the classroom to clinical care. Students practice their assessment and treatment skills here before caring for vulnerable people in local area hospitals. In consideration of that transition to practice, students have identified - and the department has sponsored - three primary needs in this critical area. First, students ask for new equipment for two very sensitive procedures - intravenous access and urinary catheterization - to replace an outdated, depreciated fleet. Students are explicitly requesting that new equipment accurately portray the population through an increased representation of people of color. This is a known issue in health sciences education. Second, students ask for medication dispensing units. This is the equipment students will use in local area hospitals to collect medications for administration. Between 7,000 and 9,000 people die every year in the United States from medication errors (Tariq et al., 2022). Many of these errors can be prevented through the adept use of this equipment. Training of students using medication dispensing units is a requirement of Washington law (WAC 246-874-070 Nursing students ADDD access). Third, students ask for new equipment to improve neonatal assessment abilities and to develop pediatric airway management skills. This investment is a direct action to combat the current tripledemic (RSV, COVID-19, influenza), which is taking lives while crushing community partners and local area hospitals. As with the first request, students desire equipment that does not contribute to health disparities through inadequate representation from the BIPOC community.

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