During the Early Fall 2012 quarter, medical assistant students at the Minnesota School of Business Brooklyn Center campus joined nursing students at the Richfield campus on a new venture: a simulation clinic.The idea stemmed from Alicia Larson, instructor at the Brooklyn Center campus, and Raney Linck, instructor at the Richfield campus. The two were looking for ways to foster leadership skills with the nursing students and prepare medical assistant students for their practicum.
Larson provided an overview of the clinic. “Our medical assistant students roomed patients (actors) they didn’t know in a mock clinic they were not familiar with while a nursing student watched them as if they were in the clinic on their own. The nursing students watched and critiqued the medical assistant students for things they did wrong or could do better.
“Once the students completed the rooming of the patient, they were then told to complete another clinical task with the patient. Some of the students had to do a more invasive electrocardiogram, and others completed a simple vision screen test. Once the students completed the exercise, they went into another room where they received feedback from the nursing students.
The medical assistant students were very receptive to the feedback and embraced the things they did incorrectly. They were also told the things they excelled at as positive reinforcement to continue the great work. The nursing students learned leadership and mentoring skills while the medical assistant students prepared for their practicum. All of the students thought it was a great learning experience.
“We did this simulation clinic twice during the quarter. The first one was to assess the skills of the medical assistant students and get them familiar with the process and the clinic. The second simulation was to see where students had improved as well as give students the confidence they need to succeed in the field. Both sets of students were in the second-to-last quarter in school. This applied learning activity helped to prepare both groups for the workforce in their particular career fields.”
To help show the success of the clinic in a visual way, media students at the Brooklyn Center Campus put together a short video clip. Check it out!
For more information on the clinic that took place, visit the Globe Simulation Clinic website.
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Congratulations to those students and especially to Alicia for generating such a wonderful idea. I understand these tasks are not easy but it help expose the students to the real life of nursing outside nursing training.