The woman on the hospital bed looked distressed and unwell. Sent over with a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia, she was 36 weeks pregnant with her first baby. Two nurses in scrubs spoke to her, took her vitals and noted the blood pressure of 168/112.
Watching through the all-window classroom walls, the instructor of NUR 344 observed her University of Rhode Island nursing students doing all the right things – talking to the patient, talking to her sister, understanding the blood pressure reading meant hypertension.
Even though the entire scene was a simulation of a nursing experience for the maternity clinical class, associate professor Debra Erickson-Owens said she knew her students were nervous. Pre-eclampsia can be life-threatening for the mother and child.
“We want them to treat it like it can be,” she said.
In newly created simulation rooms and classrooms, the Nursing Education Center at South Street Landing is allowing students to access advanced technologies and teaching approaches in the field of nursing.
The former power plant is now a shared space, used on two floors by the nursing programs operated by Rhode Island College and URI. On upper floors, Brown University has numerous administrative offices.
The $220 million renovation of the building was completed in September 2017, just in time for the current academic year. The project cost included the outfitting of classrooms with what the nursing school deans describe as state-of-the-art simulation technology.
The high-tech mannequins used by the programs, for example, have veins and carry life-like fluids so students can practice taking blood samples and vital signs. They speak to students, as programmed by an instructor in an adjoining room.
In one classroom, students learning anesthesia administration have access to the latest equipment. Behind a window, in an adjoining classroom, fellow students can observe, or watch the exercise unfold on computer monitors.
Another room is set up to resemble an apartment, complete with couches and floor coverings. The room is used for simulations of home-based care. Up on the ceiling, microphones and digital cameras relay what transpires below to an adjacent classroom.
After each simulation, the classes can talk about what went wrong, and right, in the experience. The live patients are actors, paid for their work.
This kind of teaching is powerful for students, engaging them in active learning, said Jane Williams, dean of the School of Nursing at Rhode Island College. “In nursing education, simulation has really taken off as a very successful pedagogy.”
Beyond the classroom walls, the location in downtown Providence has allowed the nursing schools to foster collaboration with nearby medical facilities, including Lifespan Corp. hospitals. Dr. Paul Farmer, a co-founder of the Boston-based global nonprofit Partners in Health, recently spoke to students at the center, said Barbara Wolfe, dean of the College of Nursing at URI. “And that has led to a collaboration with some of our students going to Liberia,” she said.
RIC and URI are sharing the Nursing Education Center facility, but their students continue to take the distinct courses of their programs. The various programs have attracted a range of students, from their early 20s to their 40s, seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing.
“Twenty-five percent of our students are second-degree [candidates],” Williams said, referring to career switchers.
This academic year, RIC has 450 students enrolled in the nursing programs, and upperclassmen – representing about half of the total – take classes each week at the Nursing Education Center. In addition, 100 graduate students attend classes in the building.
URI has 900 students enrolled in its nursing programs. About 240 of the upperclassmen attend classes at the South Street Landing facilities each week. Another 130 graduate students also take courses in the building.
The shared facilities have allowed the university and college to share costs for equipment that otherwise might have been outside their reach.
Since the Nursing Education Center was approved, the nursing enrollments in both institutions have grown, according to Williams and Wolfe.
Some of that may be driven by demand for nurses, a position that pays well, and in some specialties often leads to jobs upon graduation.
The URI programs taught on-site include several nurse practitioner concentrations, such as family care, adult gerontology, acute care and adult dermatology. The university is launching another nurse practitioner program specializing in psychiatric care, inspired by community demand.
RIC has several graduate programs on-site, including Master of Science in nursing degrees in adult/gerontology with an acute care emphasis, nurse anesthesia and population/public health. The college also has a doctoral program in nursing practice, launched in 2016.
The new facilities have provided more space and more opportunities for students and instructors.
“It’s been great in terms of being able to recruit faculty, particularly for our tenure-track positions,” Wolfe said. “Right now, there is a shortage in nursing … so it’s not easy to attract those folks.”
Williams noted RIC, too, has had increasing enrollments in its programs for several years.
“Being able to offer the facility is a great benefit to students,” Williams said. “They like the fact that they are studying in a very up-to-date, current environment. They feel the professionalism.”
