NEWS

A team of registered nurses on duty at Northern Louisiana Medical Center’s Women Center had their shift interrupted by a “new patient” in labor – the Noelle Childbirth Simulator.

Louisiana Tech’s Division of Nursing and the hospital enhanced their clinical partnership and gave hands-on learning experience to registered nurses and nursing students with the new simulator.

The simulator, brought from Tech’s Division of Nursing and Tanya Sims, an assistant professor of nursing, gave nurses the chance to assist with a birth complication caused by a fetal shoulder dystocia, which is when a vaginal delivery is complicated by difficulty in delivery due to the position of the shoulders of the infant. Sims developed and coordinated the shoulder dystocia drill.

Tech’s nursing students who are enrolled in Nursing 210, Maternal Newborn Health Maintenance, assisted Sims in preparation for the event, enhancing their own clinical experiences in a maternity setting. Registered nurses on staff at the Northern Louisiana Medical Center were active participants in the drill and received hands-on interaction with the simulator as well as a PowerPoint presentation on shoulder dystocia management.

Written by Judith Roberts