There’s no shortage of hospital beds for nursing students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga with the official unveiling of new teaching facilities on Tuesday 6 December.

 

The laboratories include: two 4-bed wards; one 2-bed ward; a larger 8-bed ward; nurses stations; clean and dirty utility rooms for equipment sterilisation; patient bathrooms; and a tutorial room where students can be briefed on clinical scenarios.

 

At each bed are interactive mannequins, nurse alert buttons for patients, oxygen, power, intravenous drips, heart monitoring machines and audio-visual equipment so students can watch and practice a live or recorded nursing demonstration.  

 

A double locked medication cupboard is stocked with imitation drugs, labeled and stored as in a realistic hospital setting. The students have access to manufactured blood for transfusions and fluids for intravenous therapy and a range of infection control measures such as hand washing stations, face masks and gloves.

 

Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Professor Karen Francis said, “In these new laboratories, we have recreated a hospital environment. Students are taught and practice clinical skills in a realistic simulated setting that allows academic staff to guide learning so that students are well prepared for clinical practice during the programs of study and on graduation.

 

“The simulated clinical learning space provides an important opportunity for staff to challenge students to assess the status of a patient, determine, implement and analyse interventions in a controlled and supported setting.”  

 

Also sharing the University’s new laboratories are TAFE NSW students studying in the Riverina to become Enrolled Nurses.

 

The two nursing laboratories are part of the $2.1 million refurbishment of the University’s David Morell Laboratory complex in Wagga Wagga, funded by CSU and federal government’s Building Education Better University Renewal Funding. This work also involved the redevelopment of adjoining chemistry and nutrition laboratories.

 

The Bachelor of Nursing is offered on campus or by distance education through the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health at CSU.

 

The laboratories will be opened by the Director of Nursing and Midwifery at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, Mr Eric Daniels.

 

The project has been managed by the University’s Division of Facilities Management. The architects for the laboratory were Brewster Hjorth Architects with building by Nash Bros Construction.