Team behind pioneering simulated clinic SHINES
When they say they put blood, sweat and tears into the Medical Laboratory Technology Accelerated Simulated Clinical Practicum - they mean it, literally.
Back row, from left: Cheri Burant, Nicole Forsen, Melody Stewart and Lori Roper. Front row, from left: Lia Green, Ilene Schultheiss, Heather Gray, Diane Poseluzny, Kim Mischuk. Missing: Keyna Laurence and Jan Steele.
For their creativity, innovation and advancement of technology, the instructors, educational technologists and administrative support staff who make up the Medical Laboratory Technology Accelerated Program Simulation Team have been recognized with a SHINE Award.
They received the New Technology and Innovation Award at the Long Service and Staff Recognition ceremony on Jan. 30. NAITLine has been profiling the SHINE winners over the past few months.
The team was thrilled to be recognized. "You should have heard the screaming," said Heather Gray, Team Leader for the Diagnostic Laboratory program.
"I think we realized all the work we put into it," said Diane Poseluzny, Medical Laboratory Assisting Instructor.
"It was nice to be recognized for the work, especially given that it was our first year here at NAIT," said Nicole Forsen, Educational Laboratory Technologist with the Medical Laboratory Assisting program.
The team has decided to spend the $400 given out with the award on electronic timers and other essentials for the lab. "We asked ourselves what will make the money go the furthest and benefit the most people," Heather said.
A Canadian first
The five-month simulated clinical experience was part of a 10-month accelerated program to train internationally and Canadian-trained medical laboratory technologists who were either preparing to write the national certification exam or return to the workforce. Twenty-one students took the course; 13 are now certified to work in Canada.
The pilot course was funded by Advanced Education and Human Resources and Social Development Canada.
The simulated lab represents the first time the clinical experience and attainment of competencies occurred entirely in a post-secondary setting in Canada. (Some other schools simulate portions of the clinical experience.)
And it's the only way NAIT could have delivered the program. "Val Billey, team leader at the time, realized we couldn't place the students in the field because there weren't enough clinical sites to take them," Heather said.
A simulated clinical experience
The team simulated a lab setting for each of the five disciplines - hematology, chemistry / urinalysis, transfusion medicine, microbiology, and histotechnology - and then, for two weeks, simulated a hospital core lab setting.
Staff arranged lab equipment to simulate clinical workstations, created a database of hundreds of patients and obtained biological samples by working with outside labs, creating samples when necessary (they used a mashed potato concoction for stool samples) and even donating their own blood.
The majority of the team members came to NAIT directly from labs - and they modeled the simulated lab after their experiences in their former workplaces. Students treated the samples as if they belonged to real patients.
Not only did the simulated clinical experience allow students to practice their technical skills, it also taught them how to prioritize, work together, multitask, and ensure patient confidentiality.
The School of Health Sciences prepared a proposal to offer the accelerated program again in September 2008 along with two separate proposals to develop and implement an eight-week simulation for students in the Medical Laboratory Technology two-year program. The government approved the development of the eight-week simulation, but has turned down proposals to implement the program, as well as the second intake for the accelerated program due to funding issues.
Related
SHINE Program Brochure
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