About Us
The Nursing Skills and Technology Center (NSTC) serves as a significant learning resource environment for the School of Nursing. The NSTC is a multifunctional teaching and learning laboratory that provides an excellent opportunity for independent learning, self and mediated instruction, and simulation based learning. The center offers opportunities for teaching and learning in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains for undergraduate and graduate students.
The NSTC has two main learning environments. The Interprofessional Hospital Skills Lab and the Simulation Center are located on the second floor of the Center for Advanced Learning and Simulation (CALS). The Simulation Center is comprised of ten high-fidelity simulation rooms and three debriefing rooms.
Interprofessional Hospital Skills Lab
The learning of nursing skills, an essential part of the undergraduate and graduate curricula, occurs in the Interprofessional Hospital Skills Lab, where students practice basic and advanced nursing skills on the latest professional practice material and models during faculty-surpervised courses. Students can practice in the twenty-bed laboratory with each bay consisting of a moderate-fidelity Laerdal Nursing Anne simulator, a hospital bed, a bedside table, an over bed table, an IV pump, and privacy curtains. Each bay also includes a functional head wall with suction, oxygen, and air, as well as a monitor and emergency and traditional medicine carts. The Interprofessional Hospital Skills Lab provides flexible space for a variety of basic and advanced lab experiences for both small and large group instruction.
The Simulation Center
The Simulation Center supports undergraduate and graduate student learning outcomes with the use of high-fidelity simulators, including the following: two CAE Apollo Prehospital simulators, two CAE Apollo Nursing simulators, two CAE Adult Human Patient Simulator (HPS) anesthesia simulators, one CAE Pediatric HPS anesthesia simulator, one Gaumard Pediatric HAL simulator, one Gaumard Advanced Pediatric HAL simulator, two CAE Lucina birthing simulators with newborns, one Gaumard Victoria birthing simulator with newborn, one Gaumard Noelle birthing simulator with newborn, one CAE Luna neonatal simulator, one Gaumard Super Tory neonatal simulator, and one Newborn HAL simulator. Anesthesia systems complete with medical gases and patient monitors complement the HPS simulators for reality-based instruction and practice. All ten simulation rooms are equipped with CAE Learning Space, which can be used for real-time, shared learning, as well as for future reference.
Faculty and Staff
The NSTC faculty and staff provide collaborative, supportive, and innovative services to faculty and students. With input from the School of Nursing faculty, the NSTC faculty identifies resources appropriate to support and enhance the curriculum and meet specified outcomes for all undergraduate and graduate programs. Some of the activities that the NSTC faculty and staff assist with, include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Provides guidance and instruction for students
- Acts as a resource for both faculty and students
- Acts as a liaison between the NSTC and individual courses in the curriculum
- Maintains learning equipment and supplies
- Assembles needed resources (i.e. equipment, supplies)
- Sets-up NSTC lab experiences
- Sets-up Simulation Center experiences
- Facilitates Simulation Center experiences
- Provides a formal orientation to the use of the NSTC for new faculty in the School of Nursing
Simulation Center Accreditation
New Orleans, LA - The Simulation Center of the Nursing Skills and Technology Center at LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing received 5-year accreditation in Teaching/Education from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) in 2022.
SSH is a non-profit membership society committed to furthering and supporting the science of healthcare simulation. SSH helps educators, healthcare providers, researchers, administrators, curriculum developers, technologists, and policy makers keep up to date with developments in the rapidly changing world of simulation-based education in healthcare. Among its activities, SSH accredits simulation programs and certifies simulation professionals.
SSH evaluated LSU Health New Orleans' Nursing Simulation Center against seven core standards: Mission & Governance, Program Management, Resource Management, Human Resources, Program Improvement, Integrity, and Expanding the Field. LSU Health New Orleans' Nursing Simulation Center was commended in all areas. The Simulation Center was also commended for four teaching/education standards: Learning Activities, Educational Activity Design, Qualified Educators, and Evaluation & Improvement.
“We are the first simulation center in Louisiana to receive this accreditation,” notes Aimme McCauley, DNP, MSN-NI/NE, RN, CNE, CHSE, Interim Director of Nursing Skills & Technology Center at LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing.