In a simulated hospital room at Brock University, a nursing student wraps a blood pressure cuff around a patient’s arm and listens carefully through a stethoscope pressed into the bend of their elbow.
The patient isn’t real but the skills students learn are.
Thanks to support from the Niagara Community Foundation, Brock’s three nursing simulation labs have new equipment that helps students practise critical clinical skills before they join the healthcare workforce.
A grant of $110,000 from the David S. Howes Fund allowed the university to purchase blood pressure trainer arms and hospital bed headwalls — the same tools nurses rely on every day in healthcare settings.
For Shelley Oakes, Brock’s manager of nursing lab operations, the new equipment helps meet the needs of a program that’s grown from approximately 75 students seven years ago to 250 per cohort today.
“Because of that growth, we realized we need a lot more equipment and supplies,” Oakes says.
Brock’s nursing simulation labs are home to equipment that students use to practise everything from taking vital signs to responding to emergency situations.
The new headwalls installed above each bedspace allow students to practice oxygen therapy, suctioning, and airway management. The blood pressure trainers, which are simulated human arms, help instructors evaluate one of the profession’s most essential skills.
“You can’t be a nurse if you don’t know how to take somebody’s blood pressure,” Oakes says. “This equipment allows us to really diversify how we teach and evaluate the students. It makes it efficient and more objective.”
The NCF grant comes at a critical time. Healthcare systems across Canada face serious nursing shortages, with Ontario needing about 26,000 additional registered nurses to match the national nurse-topopulation ratio.
Many of the students training with the new equipment will care for patients throughout Niagara after graduation.
Nursing student Faith Bassey came from New Brunswick to study at Brock because of the program’s reputation. The practical training she’s getting to bridge classroom learning and patient care has only gotten better with the NCF’s help.
“Brock has one of the best nursing programs,” Bassey says. “Compared to first year when we just came into the program… we’re getting more hands-on. It’s really important to our education.”