Back in our own skills lab

A lot of thoughts after that visit to the amazing Sim skills lab in Cincinnati - one of the most interesting and concerning things to me was the lack of culture and ethnicity among the mannequins. There was one African-American mannequin. One. Dare I say "token"? When I asked how they might develop a scenario with a, say, Hispanic theme, the answer was, well they could dress the mannequin like a Hispanic! Really? Does that mean in a serape and a sombrero? Can we say stereotype? One of the most important areas in nursing is being sensitive to culture. However, no skills lab that I have yet seen, save for this one lone mannequin of color, have any culturally diverse mannequins. Yet more than 50% of the patients that nurses see identify as "other". They are not Caucasian. It seems we pay lip service to culture, while in our skills labs we see only whites. We say we are developing realistic scenarios with these new, incredibly expensive mannequins, but again, it's a whites only club. I call on the schools of nursing and the Sim manufacturers out there to change THIS scenario. This is not real life, and we need to reflect reality truthfully in our skills labs.


There. I'm getting off my soapbox for now.

Back in our skills lab, Sherleena decided we need to at least give our Sims a little more personality! Teri, Sherleena and I along with some of the students had a great time making them "real"! Check it out:

Applying eyelashes and makeup

Whew. That was tough, we need a rest.