Rutgers School of Nursing Magazine - Summer 2024

R Rutgers School of Nursing is ramping up its clinical simulation program as 75 more undergraduate nursing students will be admitted each year. While it’s a small step, it will nevertheless help ease the current nursing shortage in New Jersey. Christine Repsha, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CHSE, assistant professor and the inaugural associate dean for simulation and clinical learning, says that a nearly $1 million grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration enabled the school to increase space in the simulation centers and purchase more high-fidelity manikins. “Clinical rotations are a requirement for graduation from the RN program,” she says. “That’s when students get actual patient care experience at hospitals or long-term care facilities. But these facilities only have a certain number of slots, and experiences with actual patients do not always encompass the skills that students must learn.” The school has four simulations centers: two in Newark, one in New Brunswick, and one in Blackwood. The rooms in the centers are exact replicas of hospital rooms or doctors’ offices with all the latest technology. If necessary, they are easily changed to look like senior centers or other community facilities. The New Brunswick center, the first to be refurbished, was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ENHANCED SIMULATION LABS WELCOME MORE STUDENTS A C A D E M I C E X C E L L E N C E B Y M E R R Y S U E B A U M R U T G E R S N U R S I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 8 / 9