College of Nursing and Public Health Adapts Sim Labs for Remote Classes

The College of Nursing and Public Health (CNPH) rushed in March 2020 to produce a batch of simulation lab training videos over a three-day span “to support our faculty when they moved to an online platform,” just before the campus closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Anthony Egan, director of CNPH’s Clinical Education and Simulation Lab (CESiL), recalled it was a “chaotic” time, as the College sought to finish the videos so the faculty “could do guided simulation with their students” as they taught remotely from their homes.

All told, Egan said, he and his team produced eight sim lab videos, each about a half-hour in length. One focused on child birth, another on preeclampsia (a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure) and another on a postpartum hemorrhage scenario, he said, while others were about nutrition, oxygenation for patients with shortness of breath and also a video on patients with altered mental status.

Ani Jacob, DNP, clinical assistant professor and coordinator, obstetrics and pediatrics at CNPH, said, “We have used the simulation videos for the obstetrical nursing clinical courses. As the hospitals were not available for students for their clinical practicum, these videos were extremely helpful.”

These videos are being used across the disciplines at CNPH, Egan said. The professor can stop the video and “ask about critical elements during it,” he said, adding that he hopes to produce “more interactive” versions.

For those interactive videos, the professor will be able to pause at certain points and put questions on the computer screen “to better guide the class,” Egan said.

In addition, he said he hopes to produce another video, this one for incoming nursing students, to familiarize them with the various COVID-19 protocols. He intends to send those videos out “before they even enter the lab” in the Nexus Building. 

Under New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan, Long Island entered phase one of its reopening in late May, phase two on June 10, with education coming in phase four.