Liberty nursing students team up with medical school for childbirth simulations

The sounds of a mother’s cries filled the air as a team of doctors and nurses in surgical gowns and gloves surrounded the bed and worked together to assess their patient’s intricate health concerns, coach her through the delivery, and bring a newborn into the world.

While the scene was only a simulation for Liberty University student-doctors and nursing students in a lecture hall full of their peers, and the mother and baby were mannequins, the skills and actions the team put into practice were all too real.

Students from Liberty University’s School of Nursing (LUSON) and College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) took part in an interprofessional education (IPE) event at the Center for Medical and Health Sciences last week, marking the sixth consecutive year the two programs have joined together to learn from and with one another about how they can best serve their future patients.

The childbirth simulations spanned Thursday and Friday, with two simulation sessions a day, each morning and afternoon. The types of scenarios varied, from uncomplicated deliveries to high-risk deliveries involving shoulder dystocias (obstructions). The student-doctors and nursing students were evaluated on how they met different objectives during the deliveries, including teamwork, problem-solving, leadership and deferment, and communication between one another and the patient. The group’s performance was discussed openly among the other students and faculty observing.

Lisa Foote, executive director of simulation & standardized patients at LUSON, said these types of events are opportunities to “learn from each other, learn about each other, and learn with each other.”

“What we’re trying to do is give our students and the medical students the opportunity to work together in a simulation, a safe learning environment,” she said. “Not only are they learning to work together and rely on each other, they’re learning each other’s scope of practice and how they overlap to meet our goal of the best patient outcome. It’s been proven that students who are allowed this opportunity in their programs to work with students from other disciplines understand each other’s roles better.”

Prior to the simulation, the group discussed the components of a quality team in a delivery room, including an emphasis on effective communication. Nursing students were able to share a common communication practice they use, SBAR — situation, background, assessment, and recommendation — with the LUCOM student-doctors.

“We came together and gauged where we’re at in terms of communication and interprofessional relationships in our respective roles,” nursing senior Daniel Doby said. “I thought the experience was really good, and it really shone a light, to me, on what areas I need to improve in, such as my communication skills with doctors. Our styles of communication were pretty different at the start, but we definitely became more comfortable and effective later into the simulation.”

For OMS-II Josh Garcia, the experience was an introduction on how nurses carry out their part in a clinical setting.

“As a second-year medical student, unless we’ve had previous experience in a hospital setting before we came to LUCOM, we haven’t interacted with nurses like this before,” he said. “These IPEs are really helpful as we get to meet nurses and pick their brains about things and see a simulation of how our roles interact and communicate in the real world. It was great to hear their experiences and knowledge and learn more about their thought processes on the nurse side of things. It was also special to see the doctors and nurses interact.”

The collaborative childbirth simulation sessions are held every spring semester and are just one of multiple IPE events that LUSON conducts with other Liberty departments throughout the year. Nursing students have the opportunity to meet with students in Liberty’s respiratory therapy program, a “Trauma Day” with criminal justice and social work students, and a simulated plane crash triage with the School of Aeronautics, all for interprofessional experience.

“We really want to grow this (IPE) program and make it more robust and use more and more of the disciplines,” Foote said. “It doesn’t have to be healthcare. It truly is about learning about each other’s roles with each other and from each other. That’s truly what we’re trying to do in interprofessional education.”