Media Release
12 July 2013
NZ First for UCOL nursing education
Nursing students at UCOL will now have the best of the best.
The nursing simulation lab at UCOL’s Palmerston North campus has this week been fitted out with a new hi-tech audiovisual system called SimView, created by Norwegian company
Laerdal.
UCOL is the first educational institute in New Zealand to have the SimView technology installed.
The installation will allow for full integration of patient voice, vital signs, hi-definition video recording and
debrief, and network access to activities within the two sim labs.
UCOL Faculty of Health Science Dean Penny O’Leary says the system provides valuable reality-based hands on learning and
opportunities for assessment.
“Nursing students and registered nurses may participate in formative simulations, clinical review, professional
diagnostic assessments, and summative competency assessments.”
The UCOL nursing sim lab has been operational since August last year. It is a two room, four bed facility that replicates the layout, equipment
and environment of a nursing ward.
Up until this point the lab has used an interim audio visual system.
“We already use current industry medical equipment, and this is the final installation to complete the unit,” Ms O’Leary
says.
“It’s quite a historic moment for us and is a major step in being able to support our students to achieve their full
potential.”
The lab simulates normal practice in every way, with lifelike mannequin ‘patients’ each with their own personality and
medical history able to be controlled from behind a one way mirror.
Since August, students have been able to work through clinical scenarios without teaching staff in the room, rather
being watched and videoed. Now, thanks to SimView, nursing students in other locations will be able to observe the
teaching remotely via the internet.
“We will now be able to use the sim lab as an interactive teaching tool for UCOL nursing students at the Whanganui and
Wairarapa campuses.
“We are committed to providing a relevant and exciting study environment for students. Health is a growing industry and
UCOL is well placed to help meet New Zealand’s health workforce needs.”
Recently, two UCOL Nursing Education staff members – Marie Henderson and Han Roeters – jointly won the UCOL Alan Furness
award for staff excellence, and they will be spending their prize money on overseas trips to look at other sim labs
around the world. The pair will also present about their work using simulation for summative assessment at the
Simulation Users Network (SUN) meeting at Whitireia next week.
Han is speaking at the University of Bergen in Norway on the topic of using simulation in nursing education on August
16.
ENDS