Giving care, taking care: A day in the life of a nursing student

‘ ‘ ‘ The transformation was huge. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Twelve weeks ago, they were afraid to go into a… ‘ ‘ ‘ The transformation was huge. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Twelve weeks ago, they were afraid to go into a room and touch someone,’ said Marilyn Elizabeth Zrust, who teaches nursing at Pitt, of her students.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Now, however, these same nursing students work in clinical environments and have started working with simulations to develop their skills. ‘ ‘ ‘ Latasha Kast, a sophomore nursing student at Pitt, said she’s known since her freshman year of high school that she wanted to go into nursing and beat her fears of patient contact years ago.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Kast has worked at a nursing home for the past three years as a nursing assistant. There, Kast cleans patients, gets them out of bed in the morning, helps them to meals and takes them back to their beds. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘At a nursing home, every day is a different story,’ said Kast. ‘It depends on how they slept and what activities they do.” ‘ ‘ ‘ Kast said the most difficult part of working at a nursing home is learning to cope with patients’ deaths. One day, Kast said, a resident passed away immediately before she came in to work. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I learned to approach people and to deal with unfortunate circumstances,’ said Kast. ‘I learned how to deal with it myself and then comfort other people.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Laura Cermignano, a junior majoring in nursing at Pitt, described the difficulty of adjusting to the schedule of a nursing student, especially when working the overnight shift. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It was a really hard adjustment for my body,’ said Cermignano. ‘Come every night at 2, that’s when I started to get really tired, but I worked off of everyone else’s energy to stay awake.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Nursing students must learn to deal with nights like these, 7 a.m. clinicals and normal classes. ‘ ‘ ‘ But the work is rewarding, said Cermignano, who added that she especially enjoyed the feeling she got when she could she see the family members’ appreciation. ‘ ‘ ‘ Once, Cermignano said, she had a patient from pediatrics who suffered from multiple ailments and relied on the nurses’ care. After tending to his needs, Cermignano was leaving when his mother pulled her aside. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘She told me she really appreciated my patience and the fact that I treated her son with respect,’ said Cermignano. ‘She said I had definitely chosen the right profession.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Two weeks ago, Kast and many of her fellow nursing students began working with simulations at the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research, located on McKee Place. The institute uses 16 adult simulators, two pediatric simulators and one birthing simulator to teach nursing and other students in the medical field to deal with real life situations in a safe environment.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Each simulator, a sort of high-tech mannequin, mimics the normal vital signs a nurse must assess when working with a patient. ‘ ‘ ‘ For instance, the simulator has, among other things, a pulse, a blood pressure and a chest that rises and falls with its breathing.’ The staff operates the simulator from a central control room and can create an emergency to which students must react. ‘ ‘ ‘ One of their simulations began at 8 a.m. on a Thursday morning and lasted until about 11 a.m. ‘ ‘ ‘ The nursing students took turns going five at a time into the room with the simulator, which resembles a hospital room. ‘ ‘ ‘ A staff member gave them the report on the patient, as if they had just started their shift in an actual hospital environment. The students then introduced themselves to the simulator, which spoke back to them through a staff nurse in the control room. ‘ ‘ ‘ From there, the students followed usual procedure to ensure the safety of their ‘patient,’ checking its vital signs, giving emergency care and calling for help when the situation became serious.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Under the pressure of the simulated experience, every group of students made mistakes or took too long to make the right decisions. But that’s normal for a student. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We expect you to make mistakes,’ Zrust told them before they entered the room.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ From another room, the rest of the students watched a video feed of the situation. Often, they would pinpoint the flaws in their peers’ performance.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It’s easy to know what we should do, because we’re sitting here watching,’ said Kast. ‘ ‘ ‘ Kast said afterward that the simulation, like a real emergency situation would be, is more difficult than the theory. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘You have to be able to think on your feet,’ said Kast. ‘When we’re at clinical, we’re not by ourselves. In this situation, there’s other students, but we’re all on the same level.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The simulations gave the students a taste of having difficult patients and even more difficult family members. Each group had to deal with a different complication and ones not necessarily related to medical problems. ‘ ‘ ‘ Some students had to use their people skills to interact with people posing as patients’ family members, while others had to learn to tell a patient, ‘No.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Often, the solution to a patient’s problem relied on the students’ ability to pick up small hints given within the patient’s history or even in the patient’s speech.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ One student made a mistake, and Zrust said to the class, ‘Let me ask if you’re ever going to let that happen in real life.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The class responded with a definitive, ‘No.’