The University Of Texas At Austin: What Starts Here Changes The World
The School of Nursing
 
 

2004 News

Kathy Hansen - Skills Lab

If you have ever been in a hospital and watched a nurse approach your bed with a syringe or an intravenous (IV) hookup, you no doubt were hoping she had practiced on a lot of dummies as a student.

No one knows the importance of rehearsing these kinds of skills like Kathleen Hansen at the School of Nursing. In charge of the simulation lab, she is the staff member who keeps the dummies or mannequins ready and waiting for students to prick and probe.

In the Skills Lab, student learns to mix medicine with Assistant Instructor Dyre

“When students first learn a new skill, they concentrate totally on the skill – making sure they are doing each step correctly,” Hansen said, “As they practice and become more adept, they can turn their attention to the response of the patients and focus less on the mechanical aspects of the skill.

“But like any skilled movement — driving a car, hitting a baseball or tying a shoe lace — many hours of practice are necessary.”

Some of the clinical skills taught in the simulation lab are intramuscular injections, intravenous therapy, medication administration, oxygen therapy, chest tube therapy, tracheostomy care, venipuncture, bed baths and body mechanics.

“And, yes, the students learn how to make a bed — mitered corners and all!” said Hansen, who herself is a registered nurse.

In addition to setting up real-life scenarios for students, Hansen also orders equipment. From floor to ceiling, her supply closet is overflowing with bedpans, syringes, IV bags, bandages, baby scales, suction machines, scissors, catheter trays, pillows, tourniquets, charting systems, sheets, hemostats, stethoscopes and lots and lots of gloves.

She maintains liaisons with area hospitals and medical equipment manufacturers to make sure the lab always has state-of-the-art equipment.

In her three training rooms, there are 18 beds, 15 mannequins, 15 training arms to practice blood draws and IV hookups, oxygen tanks, IV hanging equipment and an x-ray viewing machine. All of the mannequins have removable bellies and chest plates for practicing wound care.

“We even supply the fake blood,” she said.

It doesn’t seem to bother Hansen that the atmosphere in her domain is sometimes downright creepy. Flipping on the lights in one room reveals that each bed is occupied solely by an arm. As she affectionately pats one of them, Hansen points out that the “skin” on each of the $300 arms has to be replaced once a year.

Hansen is especially proud of SAM (Student Auscultation Manikin), a fairly new $4,000 mannequin for listening to heart, lung or bowel sounds.

“Kathy lovingly demands excellence from our students,” said Dr. Betty Skaggs, assistant professor of nursing and Hansen’s supervisor. “She keeps up with all the new and different equipment that community hospitals and agencies use so we can have the exact model for students to learn and practice on.
“Students have told me that this is invaluable to them when they get into the actual clinical setting. Kathy always has the students’ best interest in mind.”

Hansen runs a tight ship. There are 10-20 different faculty members in the training labs each semester. Many have them have specific preferences on how their lab is set up. “Often there is just 10 minutes between labs.

“We have to be organized and have everything ready to go so we can swoop into a room, clean up the previous class items and set up the new ones,” said Hansen.

The school also has 4-8 hours of “open lab” each week where students can drop in to practice any skill they have been learning. Teaching assistants, who are in the nursing graduate program, help the students in the open lab as well as in the regular simulation class.

“I really believe in the importance of ‘caring’ in the nursing profession,” Hansen said. “I have seen highly skilled nurses who didn’t connect with their patients because they weren’t caring.

“We really try to role model the caring aspect in the skills lab. We encourage the students to treat their mannequin, for example, as a real patient so they can practice communication skills.”