Blue Skies of Texas Opens Nursing Simulation Lab

Blue Skies of Texas, a continuing care retirement community, has opened a nursing simulation lab for on-site training of its facilities’ nursing staff. The lab will be available 24-hours a day for nurses to hone their skills specific to geriatric care.

Newly hired nurses to will be required to successfully complete training in the lab and current nurses will complete competency-based training yearly. Newly desired skills introduced in the geriatric arena will be incorporated into the lab as needed and nurses will be able to use the lab to practice and maintain their skills.

The 650-square-foot lab is equipped with two Life/Form Geri Nursing Skills Mannequins, one of which is an Auscultation mannequin providing heart and lung sounds. Other training devices include an IV arm, injection arms, urinary catheter insertion simulators for both male and female, a pitting edema simulator, and a Seymour II wound care model and Wilma wound foot – both are wound/pressure ulcer simulators and a stump bandage simulator.

“We are providing our nurses with the skills necessary to manage care and disease processes within our continuum of care,” said Wendy Carpenter, Executive Director of Health Care Operations. “Our goal is to improve patient outcomes by successfully rehabilitating patients to return to their homes, and this can only be accomplished with a competent and well-trained staff.”