NIU School of Nursing turns 50 this year

DeKALB – Don't call the mannequins in the simulation lab at the School of Nursing at Northern Illinois University dummies. Especially in front of lab director Catherine Maney.

"Don't call my patient a dummy," Maney playfully scolds a student Friday afternoon after he did just that. "You've broken my eardrums."

The four simulated mannequins in the lab – which is filled with equipment and looks like a hospital ward – are loaded with technology and can breathe, have heart and lung sounds, and can have an IV line put into them. They are programmed to have specific ailments – such as abdominal or chest pain – and students are instructed to treat their patient.

Instructors can provide voices to them through a microphone, reacting to the decisions students make, Maney said, making the mannequins as real a patient as possible to learn on without an actual human stepping into the role.

"We call them patients with our students," she said. "We want to maintain the fidelity and not pretend, so it's as real as possible in here. ... Nobody is telling them, 'This is what to do.' We will help them if they need it. But the thinking is their own."

The simulation lab – which has been around for just two years and was paid for largely through grants – is just one way instructors say they try to provide the best education possible for nursing students at NIU.

About 70 students graduate from the program every semester – a long way from the seven students in the first graduating class of 1963. They are among a long line of students who have gone through the NIU program, which is celebrating its 50th year. Students in the nursing school program pass their licensing exams at rates higher then the state and national average, school chairwoman Brigid Lusk.

The school was founded in 1959 by Annette S. Lefkowitz, who served as chairwoman of the school until 1978. Lusk, who has been with NIU since 1989, said she was drawn to the school because of it's long history and because it is a state school that would serve a lot of people well.

"I want them to be thinkers," Lusk said. "I want them to be able to apply the basic tenants of critical thinking, common sense and assertiveness. All that should lead to the optimal safety and care of patients."

That's accomplished, she said, by teaching the students more than just rote memorization. They are given case studies to examine and asked how they would approach each situation. There's no wrong or right answer, Luks said, but instructors want to know how they would handle the case.

Curriculum has been revised and expanded to include issues not previously thought of, Lusk said, such as care of older adult, an understanding of genetics and how health care policy affects patients.

In the past, nurses have focused on the ailment that caused a patient to seek medical treatment. Now, Lusk said students are taught to collect information about a patient's finances, family and other concerns.

"It's a broader, more holistic view," she said.

The opportunities at NIU are more than what Kristen Selig said she had during her training. Selig, who has been a nurse since 1991, is at NIU working on a bachelor's degree in the field. She also is the assistant in the simulation lab.

"We used each other to practice on," she said as she watched four students practice on one of the mannequins – Maribel Stanton, 82, who is in the hospital with abdominal pain. "I think this is really good for them. It's a safe place for them to come and learn."

The four students working on Maribel agreed.

"It's very realistic," said Rose Vargas, a junior in the program. "I got nervous talking to her as much as I would if it were a real patient."

The experience taught them how to work as a team, agreed fellow student Donald Walker, although Dan Cyik said it was a little overwhelming to put the skills they've learned in class into practice.

As they took her pulse, listened to her heart and administered medicine, they also answered questions from Maribel – who was being voiced by Maney. As the students finished their evaluation, "Maribel" asked them if she was normal.

"You are," they replied.

"Oh," she answered back. "That's such a relief."