News
July 15, 2020

CNLs Return for In-Person Learning

Christine Phelan Kueter
An image of a CNL student learning how to insert a bronchial tube into a pediatric patient.
CNLs learned and practiced a variety of skills related to pediatrics, including simulations on how to insert bronchial tubes.

Our Clinical Simulation Learning Center sparked back to life this week, when second-year Clinical Nurse Leader students returned to McLeod Hall for in-person pediatric skills practice.

Masked, physically distanced, with surfaces repeatedly disinfected and thoroughly cleaned between scenarios, CNLs practiced communicating with young patients, both anxious and absent parents, assessing pain, and administering medications. They did simulations with patients with everything from sickle cell anemia and traumatic burns to unmanaged pain, both freshening up skills previously learned and diving into new competencies.

A class of masked CNL students learn pediatric skills spread out in McLeod Hall.
CNLs returned to in-person clinical learning July 13, spreading out in McLeod.
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A quartet of CNL students practice suiting up in PPE in the sim lab.
They practiced donning and doffing PPE together ...
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Students practice donning and doffing PPE with their instructors.
... and with PPE coaches, who painstakingly took them through all the steps...
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Four CNL students learn about and get fitted for full-head coverings and masks.
... and got fitted for and practiced wearing full isolation gear.
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CNL student Angie Limas tends a pediatric patient in the sim lab.
... they also practiced simulations caring for a sickle cell patient in pain...
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A CNL student practices placing a gastric tube.
... an adolescent patient with a feeding tube ...
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A CNL student practices caring for a patient with sickle cell anemia experiencing pain.
... learned how to communicate with absent and anxious parents ...
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Four CNL students enjoy a socially distanced lunch in McLeod Hall.
At break, they even enjoyed a physically distanced lunch together.
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CNL students learn from prof. Melissa Otoya about IV catheters.
Learners and profs were spaced out, masked, and surfaces repeatedly cleaned.
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You can still tell this CNL student is smiling behind her mask.
Students had fun engaging together, while strictly following safety guidelines.
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A sim lab sign acknowledges that getting good at something takes time.
There was even occasion to chuckle, amid the seriousness of the moment.
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Angie Osorio Limas (CNL `21), a psychology major originally from Bakersfield, CA, who joined the program last year was so excited about returning to class in person she couldn't sleep the night before. And while she's felt "a little scared," she's appreciative of how faculty have "listened to what our concerns are."

"It's scary to think about everything that's changing every day," said Limas, but "we're making sure we're not making mistakes and protecting ourselves. That's the number one thing now, so we can be there for our patients."

Though CNL classes have been meeting virtually, there's a relief in convening in the same space, said Limas, because "nobody gets you quite like your cohort."

Frankie Allen (CNL `21) agreed.

"That's been the hardest part about going remote," said Allen (CNL `21), a biology major originally from Detroit, MI, "not getting that social part. But the program's done a great job of making things safer, setting up social distancing, we're all wearing masks, and they're sanitizing things between simulations and activities, trying to keep everyone as safe as possible."

Nerves or not, being back in the sim lab has, she added, reaffirmed her eagerness to become a nurse, and made her appreciate the transformations taking place. 

"It's only been a year," said Allen, "and we're only halfway through the program, but we've all grown. I feel like I'm already understanding how to think like a nurse."

CNLs begin clinical rotations in hospitals and clinics beginning in early August.

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