Crucial to any program of nursing education are collaborations with the healthcare community that enable and support clinical learning experiences. Amarillo College is fortunate that its nursing programs have a strong, cohesive partnership with the local healthcare community.

“Without our community agencies, our students would not be able to have the ‘application piece’ to the learning experiences that are necessary to educate licensed vocational nurses and registered nurses,” said Dr. Richard Pullen, dean of nursing and Associate Degree of Nursing Program director.”

Approximately 75 percent of AC nursing students’ clinical learning experiences are conducted in the hospital setting, primarily at BSA Hospital, Northwest Texas Healthcare System (NWTHS), Thomas E. Creek Veteran’s Hospital and Vibra Health Care.

Pullen points out that clinical learning experiences give nursing students opportunities to apply what they have learned in the classroom. For example, students may learn how to assess a patient with a heart attack in the classroom, but it is in the clinical environment where students apply their newly acquired assessment skills. 

“Students not only apply what they know,” Pullen said, “they also analyze additional patient-centered information such as laboratory and imaging (X-ray) results and any information gleaned from the inter-professional team that includes the patient, family, and other healthcare providers.

“The nurse is an integral member of the inter-professional team,” he said. 

AC nursing faculty supervise clinical learning experiences according to guidelines established by the Texas Board of Nursing (TBON). The TBON has established flexible rules and regulations for nursing programs in Texas to meet the clinical learning needs of students while ensuring safe, quality nursing practice.

For example, TBON requires that one faculty member have no more than 10 students on a clinical unit. However, in the Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program a clinical rotation may have as many as 15 students if the faculty member is accompanied by a registered nurse clinical teaching assistant.

TBON also allows students to have preceptor experiences. This means that students are supervised by a licensed nurse in a community agency. In preceptor experiences, students in the ADN Program (RN) must be supervised by a registered nurse, and students in the Vocational Nursing Program (LVN) must be supervised by a licensed vocational nurse or registered nurse.

The nursing programs at Amarillo College also use clinical simulation for a portion of the total number of clinical hours for a nursing course. Clinical simulation allows students, in small groups, to assess a patient-centered scenario, critically think (putting the pieces together) and then perform nursing interventions to provide safe care to the patient. Students use high fidelity manikins in these scenarios.

Such manikins have the ability to speak and even to give birth, and they have pulses and a variety of body fluids that students can assess. Clinical simulation allows students to communicate with each other, and make both wise and poor decisions during the 15- to 20-minute scenario. Students reflect on their decision-making during a debriefing meeting immediately following the clinical simulation experience. Debriefing is guided by a nursing faculty member. 

“It is in this way that students quickly learn what ‘not to repeat’ and ‘what to repeat’ in the actual care of patients,” Pullen said. “AC is fortunate to have a state-of-the art Clinical Simulation Center. It’s an invaluable asset.”

The Center is located on the third floor of Jones Hall on the West Campus. AC students also participate in many other clinical simulation experiences with like-minded partners at Sim-Central in Amarillo. Students from AC, West Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) frequently share in these scenarios. Sometimes they are joined by medical and pharmacy students from TTUHSC. 

“Our community partnerships and collaborations are essential to our goal of training and providing the very best nurses for a healthcare community we all rely on to serve with the utmost skill and professionalism,” Pullen said. “We treasure our many alliances; they are precious and they impact the health of our entire region.”

July 5, 2015