Fall 2005

Message from the Dean | Graduates Make First Class Gift | Carter-Fleck Professorship Contributes... | Weinert Named Carter-Fleck Professor | Geriatric Program Benefits... | Albers Champions Midwifery Program | Dominguez Receives Alumni Award | Simulated Learning and Online Programs Offer Realistic Training |

By Aaron Martinez

In the past, nursing education was a mentor-based process where one nurse taught a student through example. But today, new technological tools are changing the way nursing students learn.

As director of the UNM College of Nursing (CON) Skills Labs, Theresa Bacon works hands on with the latest technological tools available to nursing students. The labs provide students with an opportunity to physically perform their skills, which Bacon says is essential in nursing education. “Students learn the rationale behind the practice, along with developing their psychomotor skills before they perform skills on actual patients,” says Bacon.

Simulated Learning Experiences and Task Trainer

Among the tools available to students are various task trainers—mannequin-like models—on which individuals procedures can be rehearsed. An example of such a task trainer is an I.V. arm. “These trainers actually give students a flash of fluid just like a blood flashback,” comments Bacon. Mannequins provide students an even more realistic experience, just short of an actual patient. CONRAD, short for College of Nursing Reality Assistance Device, an 80-pound mannequin made to look like a 180-pound man, is designed to elicit appropriate responses from students in various scenarios. Capable of exhibiting various heart conditions and varying breathing rates, CONRAD offers students a more standardized method of learning. It also allows faculty the opportunity for more standardized evaluation of student performance. “The mannequin has a speaker, which allows professors to speak through him, giving students an opportunity for a more human response,” explains Bacon. “Our faculty is working to create even more training programs, which CONRAD will simulate. It adds an essential element of realism.”

Online Programs

Advances in computer technology not only benefit students working with CONRAD but also those utilizing the extensive distance education programs via the Internet. “We have a lot of nurses in rural areas who can’t leave their communities,” says Jon Sibray, systems administrator for CON, “and our online courses reach them.” This fall the distance education program at CON took a big step forward by offering the Ph.D. in Nursing online. The Ph.D. in Nursing at UNM started the fall of 2003 and is the first and only nursing doctorate in the state of New Mexico.

Sibray credits certain technological teaching aids for allowing such developments in the program to take place. “Two years ago, thanks to HRSA grant funds, we purchased a dozen computer notebooks for students in rural areas to use for online courses,” explains Sibray. Despite the increasing availability of online programs, the issue of connectivity for students remains. “There is still a technological hurdle to overcome, which is the availability of broadband Internet in rural areas,” says Sibray. “Our Web programs work with dial up, but with advances like online Web conferencing and streaming sound files, the programs are best used through faster connections.”