Events
Face to Face
Wellness Centre
Conservatory
Cougar Athletics
Media Room
Photo Galleries
CMS Blog
Archive
A big part of what attracts students to Mount Royal University is its quality facilities.
Olympic athletes use our Athletic Centre. Many professional broadcasters have cut their teeth in our broadcast booths. Theatre and music students have several fantastic theatres to practice and perform in. Aviation students are privy to state of the art training in Mount Royal’s flight simulator.
Nursing students will soon benefit from their own state of the art labs, which recently began construction in the W wing near the West Gate. Construction is scheduled to be finished in Sept. 2010.
 |
| The new nursing simulation centre is already under construction and due to be ready for use in Sept. 2010. |
“We’re stepping up what we currently offer our students,” says Mount Royal Nursing’s Simulation Learning Centre Manager, Shelley Jeske.
Jeske has been a nurse with Alberta Health Services for more than 20 years.
What the labs will offer
The new labs will have four rooms, capable of replicating a clinical or home setting, which offers students a more immersive, engaging learning experience.
The Bachelor of Nursing program has also purchased a family of specialized, computer-operated human patient simulators.
Each simulation suite will have its own observation area behind a pane of one-way glass where a professor can observe and manipulate the simulator’s controls in addition to providing a voice for the simulator.
With this new space and technology, students will have the opportunity to practice basic patient assessment, which for many students can be a highly stressful procedure the first time it’s done in a real life, clinical situation. By learning how to assess the simulator while engaging in a conversation with the patient, a higher sense of realism is created as the student recognizes the importance of communicating with patients in addition to completing the clinical assessment.
Jeske knows lab’s value first hand
Jeske speaks to the value of the new simulation centre from personal experience. When she studied for her Masters in Nursing at the University of Calgary, Jeske’s focus was on improving experiential learning and simulation for nursing staff.
In fact she believes health care education has always incorporated some type of simulated learning but the challenge Jeske notes was overcoming the artificial approach.
“I was tired of the pretend. When we were educating staff at the hospital it was always pretend and you could never see a scenario through to its potential. Now with the advanced simulators available we can see the results of our decisions and learn from the consequences.”
The labs will also have separate debriefing rooms with flat screen monitors. The monitors will be capable of showing live feeds from the simulation suites as well offer playback ability to enhance student review.
Jeske says the new centre embodies Mount Royal’s commitment to problem-based learning in a realistic, practical environment that prepares our graduates to enter the career world ready to hit the ground running.
Jeske says this type of learning environment is becoming standard fair among the top nursing programs in North America, so it’s fitting that Mount Royal is moving into that class since our nursing students are regularly recognized with awards and our graduates are in high demand.
“It’s the whole notion around engaging students beyond the typical setting of the lecture theatre where the student often becomes a passive learner.”
“In this upcoming program, the more practical, experiential learning we can offer our students the better off they’ll be.”
— Steven Noble, May 13, 2010
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3E 6K6
403.440.6111
