Nursing is a hands-on career, and your education is no exception. The nursing skills lab and simulation experience components are your chance to learn essential nursing concepts and gain hands-on experience practicing nursing in a setting resembling a working hospital. This is a safe environment where you can make mistakes and learn from them before practicing real-world patient care in clinical rotations.
As an accelerated BSN student, you will participate in these labs in the School of Medicine’s Murphy building in New Orleans. You will engage in learning opportunities alongside Tulane’s medical students, providing valuable interprofessional collaboration opportunities.
You will begin skills labs and simulation experiences during your first semester to build and apply knowledge gained from your online coursework. Guided by our dedicated faculty, you will learn to perform nursing skills, practice patient communication, utilize medical equipment, and navigate clinical scenarios.
Nursing Skills Lab
The program’s skills labs are your first stepping stone to providing patient care. Nursing skills labs build on what you have learned in your coursework, teaching you how to safely perform foundational and advanced nursing skills and procedures using interactive patient manikins. These manikins are your first patients and can simulate various medical conditions, creating a realistic and lifelike environment.
Skills labs feature the same advanced technology available in healthcare facilities, preparing you for clinical rotations. These labs will teach you the necessary foundational and advanced skills that will serve you throughout your career, such as:
• Vital signs measurement
• Health assessment techniques
• Oxygenation
• Wound care
• Medication management
• Effective therapeutic communication
Your skills labs will prepare you to utilize nursing skills in simulated clinical scenarios and patient experiences.
Simulation Experience
Simulation lab experiences focus on introducing you to providing team-based patient scenarios. You will participate in mock clinical and community-based simulations that require nursing skills, techniques, and equipment commonly found in hospitals to assess and treat realistic patients. Life-like interactive patient manikins simulate medical conditions such as allergic reactions and respiratory distress providing you with the valuable opportunity to practice and develop your nursing skills in a safe, risk-free environment.
Through simulation experiences, you will:
• Develop clinical thinking skills
• Strengthen team-based communication
• Cultivate problem-solving processes
• Apply technical knowledge and procedures
After participating in simulation labs, you will be prepared to make sound clinical judgments in a healthcare setting.
Real-World Preparation
Nursing skills labs and simulation experiences are your first exposure to providing patient care in a risk-free environment. These labs prepare you to confidently enter clinical rotations and start your nursing career, equipping you with the skills and knowledge you need to provide competent and compassionate care. You will learn how to think quickly on your feet while providing patient-centered care in a variety of clinical scenarios. This is a critical component of your education that exposes you to unique and complex situations you may not encounter during clinical rotations.
You can trust that when the time comes to enter the profession as a practicing nurse, you will be ready. The education you receive at Tulane University will establish a solid foundation for your nursing career.
