Damianos Nursing Skills Lab holds ribbon cutting
Mar. 7—PLATTSBURGH — Michaela Davison, RN, graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2020 and went out into the world with her nursing degree.
First, she worked at the University of Vermont Health Network -Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital before moving to Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, and then community schools.
Davison has returned to her alma mater as the new laboratory and simulation coordinator, at the revamped Damianos Nursing Skills Lab, which had a recent ribbon cutting.
"We have a total of six, if you don't include our baby, six simulators," she said.
"So, we have maternity. We have trauma and emergency, general med surg, and we have pediatric simulators as well as a newborn. It gives great hands-on experience for students that aren't able to necessarily help deliver a baby at the hospital. They have the chance to have that here as well as many others. So, this is an upgrade since I graduated, so to come back now and help in the program. I'm really excited for this journey to see where this goes."
DAMIANOS GIFTS
Dr. Denise Simard, the dean of the school of education, health, and human services at the university, welcomed students, colleagues, and community members to the upgraded Damianos Nursing Skills Lab, which was originally funded by generous gifts from Jinny and Jim Damianos.
"Very early in my role as Dean, an assistant professor walked into my office and presented me with a rolled up CAD drawing for a new lab space," Simard said.
"Now nearly six years later, here we are. We have a new lab. I would like to publicly acknowledge those who were instrumental in making this lab project become a reality. So first, Neal Andrews, whose bequest was used to purchase Pediatric Hal and other essential lab equipment. Don't miss Pediatric Hal. He's got Burghy."
An anonymous donor provided the nursing department with a $100,000 gift, which will be used in part to fund curriculum design as well as funding professional development for nursing faculty and staff to maximize the power of the high-fidelity simulators.
"We need to make sure that our team is ready to use the state-of-the-art equipment," Simard said.
"In addition, to private donations we also received this project received HEERF and SUNY Construction Funds. So, they helped with the structure."
SUPPORT ROLES
Simard also recognized the support and efforts by the following individuals: Bill Circelli, Emeriti, director of facilities; Sean Dermody, assistant vice president for regional procurement services; Dr. Alexander Enyedi, president of SUNY Plattsburgh; JoAnn Gleeson-Krieg, associate vice president of academic affairs; Randy Kelley, nursing faculty, Rick Larche, construction project supervisor; Josee Larochelle, vice president for administration and finance; Shelley Lauren, nursing department administrative assistant; Julie Luetschwager, former chair of the Nursing Department; Holly Heller-Ross, dean of Library & Information Technology Services, Dan Mariano, chief janitor.
"A special shout out to the moving crew," Simard said.
"Think about all those beds having to move downstairs and back upstairs. They had to be disassembled, so a special shout out."
She also recognized Tyson Moulton, assistant vice president for administration and finance, Heather Mousa, assistant professor of nursing, TJ Myers, chief information officer; Anne Hansen, vice president for institutional advancement; Anne Herzog, provost and senior vice president; Bobbi-Jo Otis, assistant professor of nursing; Davison, Pat Shinn, chair of nursing; and Lisa Wells, emerita faculty and chair of nursing.
"I would like to recognize all of our nursing faculty and staff," Simard said.
"I would like to also acknowledge some community and campus leaders... John Ettling, former president of SUNY Plattsburgh; Allison Heard, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion... and Assemblyman Billy Jones's Office."
SOBERING STATS
Based on projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States will need more than 200,000 RNs each year until 2031.
"It is our hope at SUNY Plattsburgh that this new facility, along with efforts of Assemblyman Billy Jones, to pass legislation to allow simulations to count for up to 30% of required clinical hours, and our strong partnerships with Clinton Community College and CVPH, we will be able to increase the number of students we can recruit and prepare to help meet this high demand for nurses," Simard said.
Dr. Shannon Hanshaw, associate professor of nursing, spoke on the impact this lab upgrade will have on students and their learning.
Her doctoral work focused on high-fidelity simulations.
"The nursing department is so excited to welcome you are here to see these wonderful lab spaces," Hanshaw said.
"I hope you have a chance to walk through and see the different lab activities that are going on in each of the rooms see the high-fidelity simulations and the new simulation lab space in action. This space was intentionally designed to closely model a real-life hospital."
The high-fidelity mannequins will help the lab provide a realistic patient experience to students.
"This new space is really central to the Nursing Department's integrated approach to providing a safe place to prepare nursing students for the medical world that they'll be going into which is really giving a lot more increased responsibility to nurses as they go out into the workforce," Hanshaw said.
"With this major upgrade, SUNY Plattsburgh nursing students now have the ability to engage in a realistic simulation learning clinical experience which they would not have possibility to do in real life for patient safety issues."
Current and future SUNY Plattsburgh nurses will learn using this state-of-the-art technology.
"They'll develop higher ordered thinking skills and practice their clinical judgment skills and communication skills," Hanshaw said.
"The labs will support student learning and help us better prepare our students for the clinical environment and for their future careers in the nursing profession. We are all very excited for the impact this is going to have on future generations of our students, and we're very grateful to be able to support the students with these new, wonderful facilities."
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
