The Robin Kanarek '96 Learning Resource Center Executive Summary

Currently, much of nursing education occurs in a passive environment of a traditional college classroom in a didactic format. In the present nursing curriculum, the actual practice of complex clinical skills and the critical thinking necessary to carry out care in a timely manner do not occur until the student is in a clinical setting with a live patient, much stress, and inconsistent supervision and debriefing. Recent research supports the need for an interactive environment where students can utilize the content knowledge they gain in the classroom and via computer-assisted instruction by actually practicing and observing clinical skills prior to working with a live patient. The Robin Kanarek '96 Learning Resource Center proposes to develop a learning resource center that allows for a state-of-the-art teaching environment where students can apply skills to solve clinical problems effectively before working in a live setting.

Through the Resource Center, the traditional, didactic approach to teaching nursing will be supplemented with a simulation-based pedagogy that will allow for the practice and observation of clinical skills, team work, communication, and critical thinking. Although many community colleges have taken the lead on the use of Laerdal Sim-Man®, Fairfield University School of Nursing envisions a much broader perspective of a simulation-based curriculum. Fairfield's hope is to provide a model for the incorporation of simulation-based pedagogy throughout the entire nursing curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and thus be a model for schools of nursing similar in size.

The goal of the Resource Center is to enhance the education of undergraduate and graduate nurses so that the curriculum across the School's programmatic offerings fully utilizes all available technological resources with an emphasis on simulation learning models. The Fairfield educated nurse will master all of the required skills of the profession through a rigorous educational process that seamlessly connects simulation experiences with traditional on-site learning experiences. All faculty will learn to use and teach in a new way which will enhance the curriculum over a four-year period to capitalize on the resources of the Resource Center, with the intent that student learning outcomes include full mastery of all possible clinical scenarios combined with the scientifically-based knowledge required for the profession of nursing.

The upgrade of the School of Nursing classrooms and lab space combined with a four-year programmatic component that focuses on faculty development and curriculum enhancement will result in the following outcomes: increased continuity between the classroom and the clinical setting; enhanced faculty development workshops; expanded student expertise utilizing technology in the clinical setting and practicing skills prior to performing them on live patients; and increased opportunities for critical thinking skill exercises with no risk to human subjects. The projected duration of this work will span four years.

The total budget for this project is $1,039,325. A total of $806,619 is needed for the construction and development of the simulation lab and the classrooms. A total of $232,706 will be used over a four-year period for faculty development and the related curriculum enhancements within the undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Nursing.