Simulation has become a key element of nursing education, and Keiser University is taking immersive training to a whole new level with its mobile simulation lab. The clinical training bus traverses the state from campus to campus, visiting hospitals and clinics along the way. The mannequins inside the bus can talk, yell, cough, get sick to their stomachs and mimic the signs of serious medical problems, including strokes and heart attacks. Students’ interactions with the mannequins can be recorded, providing students an important opportunity to reflect on at what elements of their nursing care worked, and what didn’t.
Jeff LaLiberte, Keiser’s associate vice chancellor of media and public relations, says simulation labs are excellent learning tools for Millennial and Generation Z learners, who grew up in the digital age. The bus also enables efficiencies, allowing multiple learners an opportunity to “learn in place,” saving both time and travel costs. As Keiser and other institutions look to build the nurse pipeline, the school is using the lab as an extension of its campus to showcase nursing career pathways to high school students in urban and rural areas of Central Florida. Keiser’s lab on wheels can also be used in partnership with hospital systems to help onboard new nurses, provide supplemental capacity for preventative healthcare and testing and to provide support to hospital partners and state agencies during emergencies, LaLiberte says.
Keiser currently has more than 2,200 undergraduate nursing students and graduates about 900 to 1,000 nursing students per year. As of the second quarter of 2024, 90% of Keiser’s ASN and BSN graduates passed the NCLEX — the licensing examination for RNs — on their first try.