Nursing Labs and Clinical Sites

You will have many opportunities to gain clinical knowledge and develop decision-making abilities, as well as strengthen your teamwork, communication and leadership skills. The Learning and Simulation Center creates meaningful experiences through which students can grow into competent and confident professionals.

Within the 7,000 square-foot space, you experience a variety of learning opportunities, including:

• High-fidelity simulations
• Health assessment skills practice
• Augmented reality (AR) system
• Fundamental’s skills practice
• Pediatric assessment techniques
• Practice with patient simulators
• Experience with wearable simulators

The Learning and Simulation Center has two high-fidelity simulation rooms, including the the Ann Lantzy Glazener Simulation Room. In these simulation rooms, you can work with:

• SimMan® Essentials, which is capable of emitting lung and bowel sounds, as well as normal and abnormal pulses and heartbeats. Students can apply dressings to a manikin's wounds or perform catheterizations, injections and irrigations. You can perform CPR and also practice defibrillation. Sim Man® Essentials can be manipulated to react to correct or incorrect drugs and dosages. It can exhibit a range of physiologic responses, including changes in eyelid movement; secretion of fluids, perspiration and tears; and emitting speech and vocal sounds.
• Working oxygen flow meters and wall-mounted suction equipment.

For simulations, faculty manipulate the manikins from a nearby control room. Simulations may also include audio sounds and video projections that expose you to the potential visual and auditory qualities of a hospital setting.

The Robert and Mary Weisbrod Fundamental Skills Lab offers areas for instruction in acute care, health assessment, basic care, medication administration and home care. Here, you'll have access to a variety of task trainers, simulation manikins, wearable simulators, and Aria our pediatric simulator.

Some of the skills that students will practice in the Skills Lab include:

• Hygiene
• Ambulation
• Patient Safety
• Medication Administration
• Tracheostomy care
• Catheterization
• Nasogastric tube insertion and care
• Specimen collection
• Wound care
• Ostomy care
• Blood Glucose monitoring
• Bladder Scanning

Future nurses must be prepared to provide compassionate, high-quality care for people with disabilities while recognizing the unique experiences and healthcare challenges they may face.

The Consult with Disability Simulation Program provides our nursing students with authentic simulation experiences designed to strengthen their knowledge, communication skills, and clinical practice when caring for individuals with disabilities and their families.

Unlike many simulation programs that rely on actors, Duquesne University partners with individuals who have lived experience with disability to serve as Simulated Patient Consultants (SPCs). Through their participation in realistic healthcare scenarios, SPCs share their personal experiences and perspectives, creating meaningful learning opportunities that help prepare future nurses to deliver more inclusive, compassionate, and effective

Program Goals

The Consult with Disability Simulation Program aims to:

1. Build a diverse community of Simulated Patient Consultants (SPCs) with lived experience of disability.
2. Enhance simulation-based healthcare education by delivering high-quality, authentic simulation experiences.
3. Teach nursing competencies that will improve the delivery of healthcare services for individuals with disabilities.
4. Advance and disseminate knowledge about this innovative simulation methodology to improve healthcare education and practice.

Conference and Debriefing Room

The Gladys Husted Conference and Debriefing Room is where you will debrief after a simulation session. The room is equipped with a large screen video monitor that permits students and faculty to view the simulations either in real-time or view the recording after the simulation is complete.

Standardized Patient Rooms

Outpatient clinical visits can be simulated in one of our four patient rooms.

The Learning and Simulation Center has so much to offer, including the following items that were provided through the generosity of Pocket Nurse:

• Birthing bed
• Neonatal monitor
• Ventilator
• Incubator
• Infant warmer

The Learning and Simulation Center also houses an augmented reality (AR) system that provides students with an opportunity to interact with an enhanced digital version of reality that permits them to see, feel, and respond to what they are learning. The technology uses smart peripherals for hands on training such as a smart stethoscope, smart CPR, and smart sleeve that permits students to practice safe IV medication administration.

Echo stethoscopes offer students amplification and noise cancellation for assessing heart and lung sounds.