10 Essential Simulation Products Every Nursing School Should Invest In

Nursing school education has gotten more advanced over the last few decades. Students now have the privilege of enhancing their nursing training safely and realistically by practicing their skills using simulation products. They no longer need to risk injuring human patients because the simulation products eliminate all worry and risk from the educational experience.

When setting up a simulation laboratory at your nursing school, you will need to include the best simulation products to ensure your students get the most honest educational experience possible. All you need to do is learn about which products you need.

Let us examine the 10 essential simulation products every nursing school should invest in:

1) Simulation Manikins

Simulation manikins are at the top of the list for a reason. Your nursing students will need simulated patients to practice their nursing techniques without any risk of injuring someone. The safest and most realistic alternative to human patients is simulation manikins.

High-fidelity nursing manikins are the best ones because they feature artificial limbs and full-size torsos that simulate a human’s limbs and torso. Nursing students can practice various techniques on the manikins, including heart monitoring, pulse checks, general hygiene, IV insertions, and more. Many high-fidelity manikins are built to simulate real body noises, such as lung sounds, heartbeats, pulses, seizures, and more.

Of course, you can select the low-fidelity manikin option at a cheaper cost, but it will not have the same level of sophistication and realism as the high-fidelity option. A low-fidelity manikin may feature a basic half-size manikin rather than the entire simulated full-body manikin. However, if you aim to train your nursing students in basic tasks like chest compressions and blood drawing, a low-fidelity manikin like this could be a suitable option.

2) Task Trainers

Task trainers are like simulated manikins, except they are made to simulate specific body parts rather than entire torsos or bodies. These simulated body parts are realistic in the way they mimic their internal components and outer features.

For instance, if you want your nursing students to practice IV insertions in the arm, you can supply them with task trainers featuring anatomically correct arms featuring simulated veins and blood. Since they don’t need a fully simulated body to practice this task, a task trainer is a cheaper option without sacrificing the realism factor.

Think of task trainers as realistic simulated body parts. There are task trainers for performing all kinds of nursing tasks, such as urinary catheter insertion, wound care, tracheostomies, and lumbar puncture treatment. Check out the Anatomy Lab Suction Trainer to see an example of a task trainer that lets students practice endotracheal suction. Students can use it to insert a catheter tube through the mouth, nose, or windpipe.

3) Wound Care Kit

Every nursing school must have a standardized wound care kit for practicing basic wound care preparations and tasks. All nursing students will need to know how to evaluate, clean, treat, and dress all different types of wounds, especially in stressful emergencies.

The ideal wound care kit will have simulated tools for treating common wounds like burns, lacerations, abrasions, ulcers, and avulsions. Some examples of such supplies and tools include antiseptic formulas, gauzes, sutures, shears, and gloves. You can add simulated blood to use with your manikins and task trainers for added realism.

4) VR Simulation Platforms

Virtual reality (VR) simulation platforms are the latest advancements in clinical education technology. If you don’t mind paying a bigger price for such platforms, you can give your nursing students one of the most realistic simulated nursing experiences imaginable.

VR simulation platforms are artificial, fully 3D environments made to look like emergency rooms or any other clinical setting. Nursing students can practice administering treatments to virtual patients in these simulations. Everything from the medical tools to the patient’s conditions and reactions is realistically simulated in these virtual settings.

Even though it requires a substantial upfront investment, the long-term educational payoff for your nursing students is extraordinary. You can program new simulated lessons into the platform to make the training original and meaningful as your students’ progress in their education.

5) Injection Pads

Injection pads are simulated muscle and skin tissue. They serve as injection trainers for teaching nursing students how to conduct intramuscular injections through a deep layer of skin. Students can practice their injections using various techniques and angles while ensuring needle safety. Most injection pads are made of premium-quality silicone material and are capable of withstanding hundreds of injections.

The multilayer injection pads are the best. They contain three different simulated skin layers that mimic the real layers of human skin. Students can practice three critical injection practices with these three-layer injection pads, including intradermal injections, subcutaneous injections, and intramuscular injections.

6) Simulated Foley Catheter Tray

Nursing students require realistic catheterization training to practice inserting catheter tubes into the urethra for urine drainage. Many of their future patients will require a Foley catheter if they suffer an injury or condition that limits their urination abilities. It could even be patients who have just undergone certain types of surgeries and cannot urinate properly.

A pristine medical simulated Foley catheter tray is highly recommended for your nursing students. It contains a prefilled syringe (with sterile water), lubricant, antiseptic swabs, gloves, a drape, a drainage bag, and gauze pads. The Foley catheter tray has a realistic design to give your nursing students lifelike catheterization training for safe and hygienic practice sessions.

7) Simulated Oral Medications

All nurses administer medication to patients, such as medicine and painkillers. Simulated oral medications offer the safest and most practical way for nursing students to enhance their medication administration knowledge and skills. Since they are simulated medications, they are nothing more than placebo solutions with realistic bottles and packaging. They are designed to help train nurses in recognizing the proper medications to administer to patients.

Simulated oral medications come in capsule or tablet form. They appear like real pills and tablets, but they do not contain any actual medicinal ingredients. So, even if your nursing students are working with simulated human patients, they can administer these simulated oral medications to them without any risk involved.

8) IV Maintenance Kit

Nurses regularly perform intravenous therapy to administer medications and fluids into a patient’s vein and bloodstream. IV insertions and maintenance practices are conducted in a variety of clinical and home care settings. That is why nursing students need to undergo extensive IV training scenarios using a high-quality IV maintenance kit.

A pristine medical standardized IV maintenance kit contains everything needed to simulate an IV treatment. Some of the medical accessories and supplies found in the kit include syringes, saline solutions, IV lines, needles, and IV bags. Nursing students can easily practice their IV maintenance skills using these essential tools on a manikin or simulated human patient.

9) Medical Simulated Blood Bags

No one likes the sight of blood, but it happens to be a common element of the medical field. Nurses often witness the sight of blood when treating patients in various ways, whether it is suturing wounds or drawing blood. Nursing students need to train on how to protect themselves and their patients from blood contamination and infections, among other things.

For this reason, it would be wise to add medical simulated blood bags to your nursing school inventory. Simulated blood bags do not contain actual blood, but they do have a red liquid inside of them that easily resembles real blood. Working with simulated blood bags will help your nursing students become accustomed to the sight of blood, making it less intimidating when they eventually work with real blood.

10) Health Assessment Kit

Conducting health assessments is a big part of any nurse’s job. Whenever they first encounter a patient, nurses will often conduct preliminary health assessments to determine their current health status and condition. Health assessments frequently involve analyzing the patient’s eye pupils, weight, pulse, heart rate, reflexes, and blood pressure.

A pristine medical standardized health assessment kit contains the basic tools that most nurses need when training to conduct basic health assessments on patients. Some of these tools include a reflex hammer, EMT shears, a penlight, a tuning fork, and a blood pressure cuff. Of course, you can always customize your health assessment kit with additional tools for training your nursing students if you so desire. It all depends on the particular lesson plans that you have created for your nursing students.

Find High-Quality Simulation Products for Your Nursing School

Now all you need to do is choose a reputable supplier like Pristine Medical for all your nursing simulation products. Pristine Medical is the premier provider of essential simulation products and supplies for nursing schools. It offers everything from high-fidelity manikins to simulated nursing kits to ensure your students have the best nursing educational experience possible.