JoAnn's Service Learning Reflection

         My service learning site is the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program at St. Mary Corwin Hospital.  This grant-funded program supports new nurse graduates who are employed at both St. Mary Corwin Hospital, and their sister facility, St. Thomas More Hospital, as they transition into the professional nursing role.  

         St. Mary Corwin Hospital, a faith-based healthcare facility located in Pueblo, Colorado, is licensed for 408 beds.   This facility averages 8,059 annual admissions, and 35,846 annual emergency room visits.  St. Mary Corwin is a Flight for Life helicopter base and is known for it’s Dorcy Cancer Center and certified Stroke Center (St. Mary Corwin Hospital Website, accessed February 25, 2011). 

         St. Thomas More Hospital, also a faith-based facility, is located in Canon City, Colorado.  This hospital is much smaller than St. Mary Corwin, with 55 licensed beds.   

         New nurse graduates hired at either St. Mary Corwin or St. Thomas More Hospitals have the opportunity to participate in the 12 month New Nurse Graduate Residency Program.  Like other similar programs across the Country, this program offers additional support and training to assist in the transition from student nurse to professional nurse.  The new nurses may be working in a variety of specialty units, such as Medical Surgical, Telemetry, Emergency Services, Orthopedics and Medical Oncology. 

         My service to the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program is to offer the participants experiences with high fidelity simulation.  I have been asked by the Director of Education from St. Mary Corwin to develop and implement simulation experiences specific to the nurse’s specialty unit.  The unit managers, along with the Coordinator for the New Nurse Residency Program, determine individual priority needs for each of the participants. I develop case scenarios based on their needs and then provide the opportunity for the new nurse graduates to engage in the simulated patient case. 

         To date, I have developed and implemented specific high fidelity simulated case scenarios for 12 new nurses who are participating in the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program.   St. Mary Corwin Hospital has one new nurse, hired in the Emergency Room, and another new nurse hired for the Telemetry Unit.  An example of the case scenarios that were developed and implemented for these two new nurses, is:

         The Emergency Department nurse took care of a simulated patient who was having an   MI.  This nurse was expected to know, and carry out the chest pain protocols of her unit, then transfer the patient to the Cath Lab.  This patient is transferred to the Cath Lab and receives a stent.  From the Cath Lab, the patient is admitted to the Telemetry Unit.  The new nurse graduate who is working on the Telemetry Unit assumes care of the simulated patient at this point.  The patient begins to have occasional PVC’s, runs of V-Tach, and becomes hemodynamically unstable.  This new nurse is expected to correctly assess the patient’s condition and provide appropriate care.   

         This project has been very successful.  The new nurse graduates, the Coordinator of the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program, and the Unit Managers have all verbalized positive outcomes from the simulation experiences.   Simulated case scenario experiences provide the new nurses with opportunities to learn in a safe environment.  With every simulation experience, I witness nursing students, as well as the new nurse graduates, be able to independently problem solve and prioritize patient care.  They have an opportunity to practice communication skills with patients and family members, as well as interdisciplinary team members.  High Fidelity Simulation provides learning opportunities that can be designed to fit the individual needs of the participant.              

         St. Mary Corwin, like many healthcare facilities nationwide, would like to construct and develop their own simulation laboratory to use with their employees.  They have submitted several grant requests to renovate space within their hospital to a simulation facility, but at this point, they have not received any funding.   Our simulation laboratory at the Colorado State University-Pueblo has recently been renovated and is state of the art.  Because St. Mary Corwin works so closely with our Nursing Program, and offers such great opportunities to our undergraduate nursing students, we offer our simulation laboratory to the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program, free of charge. 

         To date, I have spent approximately 50 hours on this project with the St Mary Corwin New Nurse Graduate Residency Program.  My role in this endeavor is as both a consultant, and a provider of services.  I plan to continue this collaborative effort in assisting St. Mary Corwin and St. Thomas More with their New Nurse Graduate Residency Program.  As the need arises, I plan to develop new scenarios specifically geared for the needs of the facility and the needs of the new nurse graduates.  I see huge potential in the use of simulation as a way to facilitate life-long learning with hospital personnel, and indirectly improve patient care outcomes.

References:

St. Mary Corwin Hospital. (n.d.). Retrieved from  http://www.stmarycorwin.org/body.cfm?id=14