From a student’s perspective
Posted 02/04/2013 1:06 PM
Guest blog by Megan Syverson, an MSOE nursing student and representative on the School of Nursing planning committee
Being part of the planning process of the new School of Nursing labs has been an amazing and unique experience for me. I have been involved in everything from figuring out the best layout of the entire department and picking out color schemes to selecting furniture for the different areas and watching the development. It’s so neat to see how these rooms have transformed from images and drawings on paper to how they are now. Witnessing the progression of this space from right after demolition when everything was stripped to the bottom, to now where whole rooms are starting to come together has been amazing! I feel so lucky to be part of this endeavor because it’s such a momentous change for the MSOE nursing program.
As you enter the nursing department, you can visualize Paula Harrold and student workers greeting you at the front desk, along with all the displays that will be up shortly featuring the history of MSOE School of Nursing, including pictures from Milwaukee County General Hospital School of Nursing, and displays of our new nursing apparel.
Taking a right, you head down the hallway and see a couple HUGE labs. There’s so much space to practice our skills! All we need are the beds, medical equipment, and discussion tables and chairs and we can get to work!
I really like how the flooring cues you into the “clinical” and “non-clinical” areas of the lab. I’m excited for the labs to have designated areas for students to come in and practice skills such as IV insertion, listening to regular and irregular heart and breath sounds, practicing giving injections, the possibilities are endless! Stations could be set up according to student needs, as they express which skills they would like more practice with.
Walking through the hallway, you run into the student lounge, one of the best features of the new nursing department! Currently, nursing students congregate wherever we can find space, and we sometimes get weird looks from all the other students as we discuss various disease processes of our patients. The best part about the new nursing department is that student nurses have a place to call their own! We have a place where we can sit with our nursing peers and discuss all the great stories from clinicals, or talk about all the gory details of anatomy and various disease processes, or just chat about all the upcoming projects and papers we have to get done. This nursing lab is our area now and we have a wonderful space to share with each other!
The space will feature a flat screen TV to practice presentations with, along with multiple bulletin boards that will feature news, information and updates on organizations like Student Nurses Association and Nursing Honor Society, as well as updates and information about clinical and lab schedules. The student nurse space will feature traditional furniture consisting of tables and chairs for doing homework and having discussions, along with soft comfy lounge chairs and bench seating. A printer and lockers are conveniently located near the student nurse space.