Western New Mexico University nursing students respond to real-life rollover scenario
SILVER CITY, N.M. – Three Western New Mexico University student nurses who witnessed and acted to assist those involved in a rollover vehicle accident on Silver City’s 32nd Street last week say their experiences in the WNMU School of Nursing simulation lab influenced their actions on the scene.
Level III nursing students Zaige Perry, Samantha Corral and Lisa Uzueta said they are thankful for the experience they’ve learned from in the WNMU School of Nursing, which prepared them to assess the patients and provide a report to the emergency medical responders who arrived on scene later.
Uzueta is a Deming High School graduate.
The Level III nursing students had just finished volunteer at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Gila Regional Medical Center when their senses alerted them to a car crash unfolding across the street. “I saw a car. It didn’t look normal. It was riding on this wall and I saw the car roll under it,” Perry said.
That’s when their training kicked in. So far this semester, they’ve learned through a dozen simulations with high-fidelity manikins that simulation lab coordinator Lorenzo Saenz programs to create scenarios like those they might encounter as nurses in a clinical setting.
“We haven’t had many actual patients yet, but we didn’t freak out,” Uzueta said. “We showed up and all right away assessed. That’s something we’d done over and over again.”
They worked together to gather information and stayed in constant communication with one another and with their patients until the ambulance arrived and they gave a report. “Even though we still talk to the manikin at this point, we know how to interact with these people through muscle memory. Communication — between us and with our patients and the EMTs — was the biggest thing,” Zaige said.
The repetition they’re guided through in the WNMU sim classes enabled them, as student nurses, to respond professionally and make a difference in the lives of their fellow community members, Corral said. “This is what we do in Lorenzo’s class. We applied what we learned in class to a real-life scenario.”
The WNMU School of Nursing trains nurses at all levels with a focus on addressing the challenges associated with healthcare in rural and frontier areas.
About WNMU
For more than 125 years, Western New Mexico University has served the people in its region as a comprehensive, rural, public body. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution and the state’s only public Applied Liberal Arts and Sciences university, WNMU is committed to developing cross-cultural opportunities that encourage people to explore new experiences. The WNMU student body represents every segment of southwest New Mexico’s diverse population.
This article originally appeared on Deming Headlight: WNMU nursing students respond to real-life rollover scenario
