The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~
In this episode we speak with Dr. Janelle Sokolowich from Western Governers University as she shares her work in shaping the future of nursing education with simulation.
What if you could get a firsthand glimpse into the future of nursing education, which includes virtual simulation and immersive experiences? Dr. Janelle Sokolowich, the Academic Vice President and Dean for the Levitt School of Health at Western Governors University, is doing just that. She walks us through her profound journey, from her days as a nursing student to her current role, unveiling how simulation has been pivotal in shaping her education and teaching methodology. Dr. Sokolowich also delves into how she's been nurturing diversity in nursing programs and the invaluable lessons she's learned along the way.
Ever wondered how simulation can be a powerful tool in paving the way for diversity, equity, and inclusion? Dr. Sokolowich,shares a compelling scenario that underlines just how it can manifest these values. She narrates an instance involving a Muslim family that had a profound impact on her approach towards diversity. Here, we unpack how the simulation lab serves as a safe oasis for nurses, enabling them to voice their queries and decipher the multifaceted nature of their profession.
As we embark on the future of nursing education simulation, Dr.Sokolowich, brings to light the potential of virtual simulation in healthcare education. She provides a sneak-peek into how Western Governors University is employing simulation and virtual reality to extend the reach of healthcare education, despite the challenges they face. Wrapping up our conversation, Dr. Sokolowich, accentuates the essence of innovation and collaboration in nursing, sharing her experiences working with the AACN to transition to a competency-based nursing curriculum, and how simulation can support students with learning disabilities. You're sure to be inspired by her passion for pushing the boundaries of healthcare education!
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The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of anyone at Innovative Sim Solutions or our sponsors. This week's episode is sponsored by Beaker Health, the community platform that crowd sources and monetizes your proficiencies for continuing education. With Beaker Health, you can collaborate with other professionals within your specialty, share your expertise and receive just-in-time knowledge. Join a community of healthcare professionals who are passionate about improving patient care and advancing their careers. With Beaker Health, you'll have access to personalized dashboards, certificates and feedback loops that give you the tools to succeed. Try it today at Beakerhealth. com and experience the power of community engagement in healthcare education. Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host, deb Tauber, and co-host, Jerrod Jeffries, as they sit down with subject matter experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. So pour yourself a cup of relaxation, sit back, tune in and learn something new from The Sim Cafe.
Deb:Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe. Today, Jerrod and I are here with Dr Sokolowich and Dr Sokolowich, what would you like us to refer to as? Oh, Janelle's fine, perfect. Thank you very much, so welcome. And why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself? Well, I'm Janelle Sokolowich.
Janelle:I'm the academic Vice President and Dean for the Levitt School of Health at Western Governors University. I have the great honor of representing close to 20,000 nursing students give and take a few on whatever day we're in. Very excited about the opportunity to really expand equity and access through health education. I represent both nursing programs and non-nursing programs in my role, which includes our batches of health information management, health and human services and master's in health administration, as well as all of our nursing portfolio, which is a lot. So I'll go through my field. But traditional pre-licensure are in a BSN, one of the largest in the country. We also have a nurse practitioner. Tracks is family nurse practitioner, psychiatric, mental health nurse practitioner, as well as postmaster's certs and all of those, and then our master's programs nursing informatics, leadership and management and nursing education. Super excited about the opportunity to present to you all today and talk about our journey, the simulation, my personal journey as well as as we have expanded ourselves here at the Levitt School of Health and our nursing portfolio.
Jerrod:That is some repertoire of your. In your belt there so 20,000 students. That's even hard to comprehend. That's like probably the size of most sports stadiums.
Janelle:Correct.
Jerrod:I'm trying to make it, you know, a graphic for most of our listeners. But first one is how did you even get here? If we talk a little bit more about I know that you've been a couple other places, but can you, even before you got to Western Governors, what?
Janelle:were we doing? Yeah, so it's pretty cool. I had a little bit of a journey. I've taught from LPN all the way through really every level of nursing. I actually have been in higher ed almost as long as I've been a nurse. Because a friend of mine said, hey, why don't you come teach LPN when you're not working? And I was a young, single lady, new nurse, and thought, okay, cool, I'll make extra money. And so I went and taught LPN students one day a week for a very long time. And then she convinced me one day, when someone come to didactic, to come into the classroom and teach a course. And that was when I got hooked. So, yeah, I've had that great honor of supporting students from really every level of nursing to enter their profession.
Janelle:And so, prior to WGU, I spent close to seven years at Champlain University. I came in as the Dean of Academic Success, having come from a very small school in Southwest Suburban Illinois, and was recruited by a good friend and colleague, who I referenced in my dissertation, because she still really cared a lot about me. And if you listen or knew anything about the experiences in nursing, one of them is you always usually have a person who's pulling you along with them and mentoring you and supporting you. And so I was at a small school in Southwest Suburban Illinois and had served as the interim dean and had a lot of success there and I'll talk more about that as we talk about it in my simulation journey. Then we'll recruit it to Chamberlain Amazon for the academic success centers and then moved into Dean of Academic Operations.
Janelle:Role Strategy and student success are really focused a lot on serving multilingual students. I'm very passionate about multilingual students and then underserved and marginalized students, so really passionate about building strategies for their success in our programs and helping to diversify nursing through ensuring that they have a pathway to their education and have the support services to be successful as a practicing nurse, so really loved my time there and I was recruited to come to WGU when my predecessor, who spent 14 years launching one of the first competency-based nursing programs in the country, dr Jane Jones-Shank. She recruited me and was with me for a year until she retired, is now our Dean Emeritus and my very good friend and colleague. So that's where my journey led me and very excited about an opportunity to share my simulation journey as well, which has been a really fun story. Yeah, let's dig into that that's also.
Jerrod:You continue to impress me here with your background. But at what age or where within this timeline did you get into simulation? Was there anything that was impactful throughout the different hurdles you had to face?
Janelle:Yeah. So when I was in nursing school, we didn't have what we would consider high fidelity simulation. I mean we had skills and we had mannequins. I enjoyed that. I think I really enjoyed the opportunity to put the work into practice. What happened is I was actually teaching LPN students and we were in our skills lab when I realized that students were. I was actually in a master's program and I created this course as part of a master's in nursing education program. So part of it is you had to develop a course or develop some teaching methodology. So I was really blessed.
Janelle:My colleague and friend was the dean of this nursing school and she said oh, you can just create a one credit course. I don't mind if the students they can take it for free and then if you want to actually make it into a course, we'll work with you to do that. So we offered this free prep success course and I actually still use it. It's a strategy on student success and how to help students answer, select, all that apply and also multiple choice questions. It's just a really replicable strategy that we use. What I learned is that students at that time, specifically multilingual students, had a hard time, although we had this strategy on how to help them understand and learn how to answer questions. There still was a disconnect because, as you may know, students who are not born in the United States oftentimes you really need to know where they, how they learned in their home country and majority of countries it's a lot of rope memory. So what happens is when they get to med surge, they have a hard time because you now have to start applying knowledge. So you couldn't, you can memorize up into a point, right, and then that's where you see that drop off when they get an advance med surge.
Janelle:But I really wanted to stop that. We had a lot of students from Haiti, we had a lot of students from Ghana, and I was so passionate about the workforce that I felt this was a way we could do that, and so I decided to take the multiple select questions and take them into the lab. So I said you know, I think the whole idea of a question is just scaring them to death. They've got all these options, they don't know which one to do. And so I actually took a question and I removed all the answer choices and I just had a question on the board in the skills lab and at this time I worked for a larger organization and they had a very nice simulation lab and so I set up the question on the board and I said I want you to. This is Mr Jones and this is what's happening with him right now. And so it was just a question on board, didn't see any answer, choices, didn't know they just. And I said I want you to take care of them and this is what, this is all you know. And so they began their process of taking care of them and they literally it was just recognizing respiratory distress in a patient. I mean, it really was a simple question about I can't remember the full story course of the many, many years ago and at the end I pulled the students apart and I said okay, now answer the question. And they're like this, this, this, what did you do? And all of a sudden they knew how to answer the question. Because I just took them out of the scenario. Because, again, when you're taking questions and any assessment, you're really just at some point in the nursing process. You just have to figure out first off what part are you in and then just do what you would do, right, do what you would normally do in that part of the process and they were able to do that and replicate it over and over again. So I removed that fear of a question in the simulation lab. Is how I did that? Because I could simulate respiratory distress right, so I didn't have to even pretend, like I did when I was in nursing school. We'd have someone breathing all hard on the side, like you know, pretending that was mannequin, and that's really how my journey began.
Janelle:And then, years and years later, was recruited to work for the small school in Southwest suburbs, Illinois, very small private school owned by a family. They were very passionate about developing health care providers in that part of Illinois and when they brought me in, they wanted to start a simulation lab and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know what to do. I was teaching there. I was teaching a lot of classes and helping with the dean at the time and she said, hey, you know we really want to buy these, so we bought these mannequins. We didn't have any strategy. We didn't, you know.
Janelle:We purchased all these things and I had to teach my do it kind of self teaching, and because I was using the simulation products that we had purchased through the vendor and you know, kind of reading through them and realizing, man, I don't know what I'm doing. And so I had to start really investigating, understanding theory, understanding the clinical decision making models and how to really use simulation at scale and how would I make it so that I could understand the accomplishment of competency but also learning right, like what are the students actually learning? And it took some time and about a year later we had finally launched. I hired a director, a person who taught me really a lot about simulation, and we were able to kind of launch our simulation lab and actually have learning outcomes and understand how to use it in the right way. But it took a long time.
Janelle:But so, when you think about the things that really changed your mind about simulation or really made you understand the value of it, it really was that first experience because students were so afraid of these questions. It didn't matter, right, the whole idea of taking an assessment. It's funny that I ended up working for a competence-based institution which the assessment is everything, but the assessment was so scary. And so how do you remove that fear? And for the rest of my career, that's how I use simulation and skills. So whenever I would have students staying after who had failed an assessment. We never did it in the classroom, we always did it in the simulation lab and it removed the fear.
Jerrod:One thank you, but two, it's. It is funny how so many people get paralyzed by fear, which it really is just a innate emotion that we just like okay, I can't do this, and I think of the deer and headlights and whatever else. But in addition, right, and we think of whenever someone's telling you something, or like if someone buys a new car, like, okay, ford F-150, right, for example, and everybody thinks you, oh, everybody has the same car, and it just kind of get overwhelmed by these things, or you start seeing the similar patterns and such. But I love how you've also taken your experience from way back when it started to apply that over and over and use that as really one of your principles, if I can add that.
Deb:Yeah, I agree You're guiding light of, you know, one taking the word question because it is, it creates a certain level of anxiety just to hear that word. So that's wonderful what you've done, and I did have the opportunity to work with you for several years and I enjoyed that and learned a lot during our time together. So do you have a favorite or most impactful simulation story that you'd like to share with our listeners?
Janelle:Yeah, so we were at the skills lab that I was building and I had a student. She was from a country in Lynch. Their belief system was that she could not, she should not seek a higher education and that her role was at home. And I didn't know about her journey. She was unsuccessful in an assessment and it was toward the end of the semester and she said you know, professor Soco, this is before I finished my doctorate. And she said, professor Soco, I need to talk to you, I really need some help. And she explained her situation that she was in school and had told her husband she was working when she would come to class and she worked at the hospital as a patient care tech. So he just was fine with that, she could work. She just couldn't complete a degree. And so she explained to me that she was working and told him that she was at work when she would come to class and that she had had to stay up all night prior to the test. So she was unsuccessful and she explained to me some of the challenges she was having with the content and again, like I normally would do, I said let's get out of here, let's get out of this classroom, let's go over to the lab.
Janelle:So we started a scenario and I wanna believe that it was. It happened to be a scenario built by a vendor and unfortunately, the scenario included a Muslim family in which the husband done something and it was very personal to her, and I was appalled, I couldn't believe that, of all the scenarios, that this was actually in this, this whole string, that that's what this company decided was gonna be the scenario. And it's funny because I can truly even relate this back to my diversity work, not just simulation experience. But it happened to be in the lab. And so we go through the scenario I mean, she of course didn't say anything to me at the time and we go through the scenario and she does a really great job, and then we go through another scenario and what happens is the more scenarios we do around this it was, I think, heart failure or something like that the stronger she got. And then we would just I would then hand her the question and she would answer it in two minutes, right. So she knew the information, she was able to talk it out loud, right. So the one thing about the 101 simulation not so much in the student, and I could give a hundred debriefing scenarios where and when I was at Chamberlain, one of the wonderful parts was our debriefing because we had these kind of set rooms for debriefing and the power in that. So you know that's a whole another 2.0 of this conversation.
Janelle:But back to this young lady. And so she really did a great job. After that I mean honestly I don't think any I've anywhere. And she actually graduated, finished her degree, and then she went on to be successful and was able to tell her husband hey, I finished my degree, I really want you to work with me. And he came and hugged me and graduation said I felt bad, she felt like that, and they ended up doing great and a phenomenal story and just a wonderful young lady.
Janelle:But to me that was one of those moments where the power of simulation but it also was another moment for me for diversity, equity and inclusion. This is, before you know, we were DEI tag lining. This is the work of diversity. That began way before anyone was talking about it and I saw the scenario and so I reached out to the vendor and I said, hey, of all the scenarios, this is the one you chose and this is what it says, and I'm not quite sure why this is in here and you know, I understand what you're saying, but they kind of shoved it off.
Janelle:Years later and dad may remember this, I actually started a process for evaluation, inclusion and equity inclusion throughout our curriculum at Chamberlain and one of the processes, one of the parts of our curriculum and sort of simulation, and come to find out that dog on scenario was still in there. And we have received and dad's shaking her head now but we have received lots of complaints about this scenario, like years later. No, the scenario, I've already submitted it way back and I'm like are you curious? Curious, I literally submitted this a million times years ago, 10 years ago maybe. Maybe it had been six or seven years, maybe not fully 10. And it was still in there and the young lady who was serving on this committee brought it forward and she said, yeah, this is. I don't understand. Students have complained about it. You know we've sent and they finally removed it later on.
Janelle:But the power and simulation are kind of twofold One for a faculty member. You get a lot of opportunity to remove the veil is what I call it, the veil of fear, the veil of confusion. The student is at a place in which they can ask questions, specifically if you're using a one-to-one or remediation strategy. And that's the thing I love most about simulation and what I believe in it is that it removes the veil. It creates an equal opportunity. It's very much like competency-based education.
Janelle:What I love about it is that it doesn't matter if you went to the Yale School of Nursing or you went to WGU if you're competent, you're competent. And it creates an opportunity to create equity, because if in simulation, you have the opportunity to fail and then to fail forward is what we call that at WGU If you fail forward, you've learned and you have the opportunity to be successful, just like anyone else. And that was probably my most impactful because it began a journey for me understanding equity. I was embarrassed because the young lady I was supporting was Muslim and it happened to be this Muslim scenario and I went through it. But at the same time, I was appalled at the content and it began this wide-eyed experience that I had. So without simulation, I'm not sure I would have had a trajectory for diversity, equity, inclusion that I've had without that experience.
Deb:Thank you for sharing that. There's a lot, that's a very deep. I love that failing forward analogy because it's very true that many of us Will fail at something, but in that space between when we fail, we move forward in a different way.
Jerrod:It's also a pattern I see emerging is the sim lab is your safe space. You keep removing people from their environment. You keep putting them back in the sim lab, and it's, and it makes it safe. If we want to remove that fear as we keep, you know it keeps coming up, but to it also allows them to say okay, just because you don't understand this one question, talk it out and then you can actually come to.
Jerrod:You know what you can make signal through the noise instead of just seeing all those words, and then you actually see that they're competent, which is what matters.
Janelle:Yeah, that's what matters. Yeah, and again, if you think about ways simulation set up, you're really taking them to their safe space of being with patients. Again, it may be a mannequin or a virtual space, but it's. It's still with patients, which for most nurses and people who want to become nurses, that is their safe space. They're much better sitting there with the patients, talking through whatever it is, and they feel more comfortable there. So it's almost like you're. You're using their superpower, which is the ability to interact with something else, to use their hands, their, their that hand-eye coordination that can send again a little cool learning that most nurses are pretty powerful in. So evidence-based practice, right, clinical decision-making. You kind of putting them back in that space, because a classroom is really a sterile space. It's not a space in which a nurse is going to truly do their best work. They're really going to do the best work with a patient, even if that patient is simulated in some way.
Jerrod:Yeah, it removes the classroom, removes that human factor element from many of the scenarios or situations. Yeah, yeah. With all this then, janelle, where do you see the future of simulation progressing? Where do you see it going?
Janelle:well. I see Artificial intelligence being core to our success. I see simulation from both a virtual space hugely important. At the School of Health, wto were really passionate about rule and the impact of rule health. I mean, we have over 40 million people in rural America, yet we have whole spaces where there's no nursing program within a hundred miles and we have people who have had entire hospital systems closed down. I see simulation being at the core of that strategy to impact real health at scale, because I think Virtual reality and augmented reality and and artificial intelligence are really at the core and the future of how we'll actually impact and Develop health care professionals at scale across the country.
Janelle:I think, as we move and you know the NCSB and this helped us do that really push ourselves to a clinical decision-making model. I see simulation not and instead of being this addition thing that you do within your curriculum, it's probably going to be end up being almost the core of the curriculum, whereas the teaching and the PowerPoints and the reading, long textbooks and all that. I think that's going to become more of a surround and the core. I think we're almost going to flip ourselves. We're, you know, we're getting there, we're, we're slowly getting there as we're moving in competency-based education.
Janelle:Simulation is competency-based education Right, because it allows you, as you go through simulation, all that is is the pre-assessment. Okay, so CBE, right at its core, has a pre-assessment, a way in which you can test what you know and then go back and Review things that you don't know. So if you think about simulation, it is the pre-assessment which is actually the core of CBE. It's the pre-assessment I'm going to pre, I'm going to assess in a safer space, in a way in which I can talk through it, I can navigate, I can look at others, I can have a conversation around it, just like you would if you were in a study group. But the difference is is you're actually moving that clinical decision-making skill Head-forward. So it's getting stronger, just like any other muscle, just like starting an IV right. So it's getting stronger the more you use it.
Janelle:And I think that the future of nursing education specifically, and all of health education, is Moving toward the simulation, the virtual learning, the virtual reality, even simulated reality, will be at the core of how we educate, and these other ways that we've done in the past, through lecture and long, exorbitant textbook reading, is going to really just be a support for the learning, and that's how I see the future of simulation. I'm really passionate about, I think, and specifically for us. We care a lot about every health entity and moving health forward in every area of the country, but it's a specific calling, I think, for those who have a difficulty accessing health Education and ability to upskill to become a health professional in their area and that leave their area. And so for us, I think Simulation the opportunity to bring students into an at physical lab, but also the opportunity to have them experience virtual simulation in some ways, will be imperative.
Jerrod:Few follow-up questions, though, because and sorry I'm gonna put you on the spot here, but one is with and I don't try to paraphrase a lot stuff with AI, this augmented and virtual reality. In what programs you see this being first adopted by? This nursing or healthcare portfolio?
Janelle:I think, in practitioner space. And I say that because we we've done a lot. You know, our MP program is pretty new and we started it really in the midst of the pandemic and so we had to use telehealth at its foundation of getting our students through. And, as you all know, we need that program to have a very high pass rate and we are an equity and access provider and so we don't try to create barriers for students to enter our programs and we had a hundred percent pass rate and we use a lot of virtual simulation. We used a lot of pop-up simulation. We work with a company that does pop-up simulation for our MP programs.
Janelle:So I see that I think the practitioner space is a good place to start, because they are practicing nurses and have had to demonstrate a high quality of knowledge, taking the three Ps prior to moving into actual practice. I mean, you know, if you can get through advanced pathophysiology, you can do anything, almost like a superpower, and so I think if we can get through that, I think that's a good space, and then I think we'll move to traditional licensure, like we're gonna do my WGU, and we'll talk about that. But yeah, I think that's where I see this space.
Jerrod:Yeah, and then a follow up to that then is so the numbers on WGU. You can share those if you can, but where are you now? Across how many states? Where are you looking to go? And then, how are you with this 40 million in rural America? What are you looking to accomplish within that area? And are there more states, or some states, that are more receptive towards what you're doing versus others that are maybe a little? Have a little more pushback?
Janelle:Yeah, so what we're looking to do, we partner with a few states. So the state of Missouri wonderfully provided us $2 million for simulation lab in Kansas City area and we are launching that now and process a building, super excited about that partnership and their belief in us as part of a workforce development grant and through the state, and we plan to deliver on that promise to graduate net new nurses through our traditional pre-licensure pathway. We have our inner strategy to be across 14 to 20 states. We want to create this pathway through a traditional entry level online pre-licensure program in which our students complete their simulation lab within a region. They come to our regional STEM labs Either to rent it or own space. So we've used a rental model for many, many years. But we are actually building right now lab in Salt Lake City, utah, as well as spanning our existing lab in Houston, texas, because it is at capacity. So we're doubling it to a 15,000 square foot space and so all of our spaces will be 15,000 square feet with four simulation bays and monitoring spaces. We're super excited about the opportunity and we'll continue to expand our across the South East region of the country and building a regional space. The way we've designed our curriculum is that our students do intensives, and so they have an opportunity to go to STEM lab at set intervals and they competency over a four day period and then they go to clinical where they live. So we build a partnership with any hospital anywhere. We have a team that reaches out, and so if you live a hundred miles from place but you have a hospital or community hospital right near you, we'll make the partnership there. We tend to not have a problem with that.
Janelle:Yes, we have challenges when it comes to some states. Some states we have to call what we say innovation and we have to apply as an innovative program, and that sometimes comes across great and sometimes not. I think you know. To be very honest, I work very closely with our National Governors Association. Western Governors University was founded by 19 bipartisan governors, and so we have a very close relationship with states, and some states are more open to the innovation that my predecessor developed, and some states are still resistant. You know they find it challenging.
Janelle:We have to operate under NCSERA, and so therefore, in some states, that means that we can't have more than 10 students at a time at cohort, and so it limits our numbers, even though we're in a national shortage of nurses, and I have the ability to operate at scale. We admit every month, so we graduate 700, 600 students every few months, and so we're ready to provide net new nurses at scale to meet the need. But we have many barriers from the state and the regulations that are surrounding operating in a state, and when we launch a SIM lab we're considered in state and so that requires headcount. Well, we're a not-for-profit and so we wanna keep our costs low for students and we wanna expand access to health education at scale to the marginalized and underserved, and so therefore, we have to keep our costs low to students, and whenever we open some physical space and are considered physical, that requires the physical headcount, which increases the cost, which we're not willing to do. And so you're in this conundrum where nurses are needed.
Janelle:You know that no matter how much virtual nursing and support we try, the human touch is as powerful as it ever would be and can be, and we learned that through the pandemic. I would love to see a research study that showed those that had a nurse at the bedside holding their hand morbidity and mortality during the pandemic versus those that did not, versus those that had no one there to hold their hand. I mean, I would just love to see that, because I think we still know we'll need the physical touch of a nurse. And so we have some states that have had barriers for us entering because it requires a lot of headcount and a lot of oversight, and even though we've done it at scale and we're a CCNA accredited program and have all of the normal accolades that you do as a school of health and nursing programs that are highly effective or an in-elns and are of excellence, and we still have those barriers.
Janelle:And so my hope and my strategy is continued partnership with teams like Johnson and Johnson Linda Benton and I have spoken to the National Governance Association about this and the barriers. Continued partnerships with states and governors that care so much and wanna remove those barriers. And, again, continued partnership with state boards of nursing. There's another barrier in which some states are governed by the Equal Boards of Nursing, some are not, and so it's not an even playing field. But we're here and ready to do it right. We're just ready to build partnerships and to create an opportunity for students toalo, too, desire winners 100%.
Jerrod:I love that and it's. It's so funny how archaic some of these I don't say rules, but policies are. They say, nope, we haven't done it like that, this is the way we've done it previously. And or the pandemic, of course, shook up a lot of stuff and you see, some things are going back To the way that were. Some are adopting new practices. But, yeah, thank you for sharing. But then, through the, through the pandemic, or anything that you've Experienced within simulation, or even this wonderful career you've had, is there something that, when you did learn it, that there was more of a Personal aha moment or anything that you'd want to share with our listeners?
Janelle:Yeah, I think you know the main thing is that don't limit your capabilities. That's what I've learned. Don't try to limit what you think you can or cannot do or can or cannot accomplish. I've learned that through my team, my director of free licensure, dr Kim Kelly Cortez geniusa, phenomenal leader and when I was thinking about we're thinking about this traditional prelaster program and we were pondering how could we do it more efficient. We used to have students traveling four times and it was within their curriculum and traveled to lab four times and that was a lot. I mean, our average age is 37. They almost always have children and work full-time. Almost all of our students work full-time and, and so how do they do that in the rhythm of prelaster program? And so she shortened it. She was able to figure out how to navigate that curriculum, to tighten it up, to make it Streamline and confidence, competency based and work, and it's it's amazing, I think, the one thing I've learned throughout the pandemic.
Janelle:It created innovation and people that had never thought about working online, doing anything online. It created an opportunity for us to test ideas through pop-up labs. We did a mobile simulation with a company. We did a pilot with that last year in the state of Montana Because as you know it's very rural and worked with a company to consider how we would do mobile lab and mobile simulation at scale to bring more simulation to our teams. We talked to local high schools and we are working on big partnerships right now and considering how would we Kind of dual provide some health services and at the same time, allow that mobile unit to be used for simulation. Don't underestimate what you can do. You know, think about all the things that you wish you could do and then tell somebody and you'll be amazed. They're like yeah, I think that's a good idea, I want to do that.
Jerrod:Well, and how many people share that same belief? Right, it's like? I'm not big enough I can't do. There's always a million excuses and yeah. You have to stick your neck out and go out of the power community, and especially with you. Know I'm talking about nurses here, but so many nurses are overlooked and don't have a voice that they are. It's hard to find one, and that collective being the Nations largest, the US's largest work for healthcare workforce, it's like yeah, all right, you can't do this.
Deb:No, yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that a lot of times, we're held back by our fear and Because of that, you're that fear of trying to do something else that people are going to look at you strangely. They're gonna laugh, they're gonna think this can't be done. However, when you go ahead and do it, you have a lot of people going yeah, you were just lucky.
Janelle:Right. And again, you know I can't say anything except for gratitude for our leaders. I mean my CEO, cfo, coo. They all support this falling forward. You know, this failing forward, this just trying to do, this Innovative approach. I mean it's part of our leadership principles and as part of our core beliefs at WGU. I have never been supported by so many people willing to allow us to try something.
Deb:Yeah, let's see what happens. Right, culture, the culture, that's the other part right.
Janelle:That's the other part, the limiter. Even if the nurse is Innovative, she's in a space in which there's a restraint on innovation Oftentimes. That's one of the challenges. And and I'll say to that nurse write it up, get really good to write in a good business case, use research right, all those super duper skills that you use at the bedside when your patient has some weird Sign, symptoms and you didn't know where they came from. And you all I remember doing it I came from teaching facilities so we'd be up all night long googling different things are calling Europe, asking them what they did for this patient that had this weird Sign or something that we didn't know couldn't attribute to what disease. You have to use those same skills and then be willing to ask for help.
Janelle:I mean we're a big community of nurses and and I realize more and more that there's so many smart people out there and they're doing some cool things and they're they're my brothers and sisters in the field and I want to use them, I reach out to them. I mean we're really one family in nursing and we need to like, use each other as this large workforce Developers, innovators. I mean, think about it. We wouldn't be able to have children live with hyperbola ruminemia without nurses, right. So we have the ability to make a huge impact piece.
Janelle:Nurse, you know we take full credit for the binky with with the washcloth attached that y'all all now it looks all pretty to make sure your baby can hold it. Well, we came up with that, pediatric nurses, because the NICU babies don't have a strong suck, and so we put the little washcloth so they could hold it and it kept In their mouth. So nurses have made an impact for all of you all with crying babies at home, and I think we're still there. We're still doing those types of animations. We just have to use each other though. There's power in our voice. There's power in our numbers. I'm working very closely with the AACN to Implement the essentials and I'm learning the power and our voice and our numbers when it's a really hard work to do, to Transition, nursing the competency based and take it from something we used to be to moving to our future, and I think that's one of the the keys is really continue to innovate.
Deb:Thank you. Thank you, this has been a wonderful conversation and interview, and are there any final words that you'd like to leave our listeners with to remember this conversation by?
Janelle:Anything and everything you do, you know you have to consider inclusivity, think about people at every person and the impact that you make, and that Something as what we consider the norm in simulation can be very powerful for someone who has a barrier. I think specifically for this audience. We often think about the social determinants of learning, we think about disabilities in learning and we consider that maybe this opportunity for us to Help them study a different way or learn a different way and I see simulation at the core. I think it is our future and how we do health education and really improve clinical decision-making and our impact on Orbiting mortality of patients and their well-being and their family, and I want us to consider that we remain innovative in all that we do and we think about the whole.
Janelle:I think simulation is one of the foundations of a well-designed nursing curriculum, because it considers those that may have a different ability and how to bring them forward and and pull them up so they can become a practitioner. I'm so excited about the opportunity that we have in front of us expanding our simulation footprint and introducing more students To a lab that has the ability to help them be innovative in their thinking and learning and and studying and those Increasing their clinical decision-making. I'm excited that it aligns with the future of where nursing should go and we're going to continue to iterate on it. So I'm excited about our future. I'm excited about the next Step in our nursing journey and nursing education overall. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you all today.
Deb:Thank you so much. Now, it's been wonderful. We really learned a lot today. Dear Jim, anything you want to close up with?
Jerrod:No, you start a couple cores of me. To now. This has been wonderful and I love that you find community with other healthcare professionals, especially finding your other brothers and sisters in the field.
Janelle:Yeah.
Jerrod:I think what's powerful is right. You have the network that you can call them up. But what if all faculty could do that? Yes just that across every you know, reaching those 40 million Americans for the preceptors and those that are actually acknowledging and treating and facilitating, and we keep supporting that with with data and then being able to push that with different areas. It's so powerful and I love the words and yeah, well done, thank you.
Deb:Thank you. Do you know, if any of our listeners want to get hold of you, what's the best way to get a hold of you?
Janelle:Yeah, they can reach me on LinkedIn just or Janell e. S or JanelleSokolowich@WGU. edu.. I'm super excited to connect with anybody. We are one family of nursing professionals. I think we all learn from each other and I'm always available, super excited.
Deb:Thanks, thank you and happy simulating.
Disclaimer/ Beaker Health Ad:Thanks to Beaker Health for sponsoring this week's episode. Beaker Health improving patient care through communities crowd sourcing platforms. With Beaker Health, you'll have all the tools you need to succeed. Thanks for joining us here at the sim cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www. nnovative simsolutions. com and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Innovative sim solutions is your one-stop shop for your simulation needs a turnkey solution.
