Nursing students practice birthing techniques with robot simulators

Noelle had a quick and uncomplicated delivery yesterday. Today she might have a breech birth, where the baby is delivered buttocks first, and tomorrow she could experience complications from bleeding.

It all depends on what UW nursing students are learning.

As one of the School of Nursing’s newest computerized simulators, Noelle is used by graduate and undergraduate nursing students to practice their abilities of delivering an infant and responding to unexpected situations.

Noelle is life-size, wears a blonde wig and has an open mouth to indicate labor-induced screams. Her chest rises and falls as she “breathes,” and her lower body is complete with a dilated cervix and bendable knees, which students position as they excitedly yell, “Push!”

Noelle delivered yesterday for a crowd of UW nursing students, faculty and alumni at an open house showcasing the simulation equipment and how it’s being used in the classroom.

Simulators present issues young nurses often deal with, said Nancy Woods, dean of the School of Nursing.

The school received two new simulators, including Noelle, and an updated version of an older model in December. Each cost about $30,000 and all were purchased with the help of alumni donations.

While working with one simulator, for example, students had to troubleshoot when it complained of shortness of breath. Students worked together to find what the appropriate medication was, and discovered the patient was lying on her chest tube, which they repositioned.

When reviewing how they handled the situation, the students realized they forgot to wear gloves, which could have been an unfortunate mistake if working with a real patient.

“It’s about exploring, trying something,” said Juvann Wolff, a nursing lecturer and director of the learning lab. “The negative impact isn’t going to hurt a real patient.”

The school has 10 simulators in the lab. Three of them are equipped with the highest technology available, including SimBaby, a 3-month-old infant who can cry, burp and be programmed to have asthma or a heart murmur. Four are programmable to a certain degree and three are low-tech models.

Kelsey Rounds, a senior in the nursing program, said his favorite simulator to work with is SimMan. The most advanced model, SimMan can be programmed to have a variety of symptoms. Its genitalia can be changed to that of a man or a woman and it can speak according to how it feels, giving students immediate feedback on their actions.

Rounds and assistant professor Teresa Delarose agreed that working with the simulators gives students an advantage when they’re working in the hospital.

“Students are able to move ahead faster,” Delarose said. “They can learn better and they feel more confident when going in with real patients.”

It also makes the hospital less stressful because the student is “not so deer-in-headlights,” Rounds said.

Alumni at the event were surprised by the technology. Lu Hilton, a 1957 School of Nursing graduate, said she and her classmates practiced nursing techniques on each other, and shots were injected into oranges.

“I’m very impressed,” Hilton said. “I had no idea how technical it is.”

[Reach reporter Meghan Peters at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]