Hello fellow Lakers!
I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the spring weather wherever you may be. As we end another academic year I would like to highlight a program that is very near and dear to my heart. As a 2017 graduate of LSSU’s nursing program, I always love to head back to campus and see the updates and changes to the campus and specifically the program that helped to build me into the nurse I am today.
This past fall, I was fortunate to be able to take a tour of the state-of-the-art simulation center on campus and was amazed at how much the technology has progressed in the seven years since I was at Lake State.
Watching the nursing students as they interacted with the very life-like mannequins and hearing the stories of how they utilize these incredible technologies to assist in their clinical experiences was fascinating. These mannequins are so life-like that an unsuspecting person may not notice at all that they are robotic! They blink, talk, urinate, defecate, and even give birth, allowing nursing students the opportunity to experience a vast array of situations to prepare them for real world situations. These new simulation mannequins are a far cry from the simple dolls that we had access to when I was in school.
In addition to the nursing program, the paramedic/EMT students are also able to utilize this incredible simulation center, as there is an ambulance set-up as well as an outdoor “set” which allows our medic students the opportunity to simulate responding to a real-life situation, following through from the time of the initial 911 call through the transport to the hospital.
Furthermore, having the state-of-the art simulation center has allowed for multi-disciplinary exercises such as mass casualty drills, which allow multiple disciplines such as nursing, paramedic, fire science and criminal justice students to work together to experience a wide range of real world scenarios. All of these advancements in technology allow LSSU students to be fully prepared to enter their respective fields upon graduation and enter their careers with confidence, knowing that they received the best education possible.
As an actively employed RN working in the field, I can only say that I hope that these students know how important their contributions to their respective professions will be. In a world where first responders are becoming more and more scarce with fewer people entering the fields every year, I feel confident that our Laker graduates will continue the great traditions of Lake State. To these students, I will say the following: keep your head up, remember why you entered your profession, and always stand up for yourself, your patients, and what you know is right. We need you now more than ever and I have the utmost confidence that Lake State has prepared you for anything that may come your way!
Brittany Barrett
LSSU Alumni Association
Class of ‘14 and ‘17
