Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists’ Perception of Simulation as a Positive Reinforcement to Classroom Lecture in Handling a Difficult Airway

The management of a difficult airway by anesthesia providers is a core component of providing safe care. Simulation provides an opportunity for the student to manage uncommon clinical scenarios without harm to an actual patient. This project aimed to determine if the use of simulation may be useful in training Student Registered Nurse Anesthetist in the management skills of a difficult airway. The proposed intervention of this project was the addition of simulation experience to didactic lecture covering difficult airway management techniques. As supported in the Adult Learning Principles of Medical Learners, by allowing the SRNA to actively participate in the management of a difficult airway, instead of solely hearing about techniques through lecture, techniques may be better understood. The target outcome of this project was to determine if simulation after classroom lecture increases the perceived self-efficacy of SRNAs in handling a difficult airway in the clinical setting. A two group, post-test design was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of simulation to increase perceived self-efficacy for first-year Nurse Anesthesia students. The two groups participating in this project, the control group (n=10) and the intervention group (n=10), both received the same classroom lecture on difficult airways, as per usual for the program, prepared by the course director. After the pre-evaluations were completed, the students were randomly placed in either group. At the end of each exercise, the students then took the post-evaluation of perceived self-efficacy in the management of a difficult airway. Each group had an increase in mean, perceived self-efficacy in the management of a difficult airway following both interventions. Although the demonstration-group had a higher percent change in overall and categorical mean confidence levels, the intervention group also had an increase percent change in overall and individual categories following the simulation exercise. Simulation may be useful in the preparedness of future SRNAs in the management of a difficult airway

Humor as a Buffer for Stress in Nurse Anesthesia Students

This simple, quantitative study was carried out on 18, first-year, CRNA students to determine if humor could act as a buffer for some of his or her perceived stress. Before an impending final exam, when stress levels would most likely be at their highest, the students were broken into three groups: a control group, a non-humorous group, and a humorous group. The students in the control group ranked their level of stress on a 0-10 scale without any other intervention. The other two groups watched a video clip, either humorous or non-humorous, while ranking their perceived stress on a scale of 0-10. The group that watched the humorous film had a decrease of 43.9% in perceived stress vs. the non-humorous film group who had a decrease of 0%. The t-critical value was computed as ± 2.571 and the t statistic as 3.37, demonstrating the significant difference in a students stress level before and after he or she watched the humorous film. This change in perceived stress level implies that by adding forms of humor in the lives of high stress individuals, specifically CRNA students, could have positive implications by decreasing the amount of stress he or she senses

Art/Act: A WGS Online Magazine

22 pages“Art, Activism, and Popular Culture” (WGS 199) investigates how art and activism intersect to address pressing contemporary social issues concerning gender, race, and sexuality. In particular, the course focuses on how art is utilized as feminist activism, and vice versa, to address social issues such as the prison industrial complex, sexual assault, media production, institutional critique, and HIV/AIDS. The course takes on a special emphasis on how artists-activists-students have utilized art to organize and create change on the college campus. Along with rigorous reading and writing, in the Winter 2016 term, students also engaged in the topic of art and activism through constructionist learning— learning through creating—in a special lab component of the class. In collaboration with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, students participated in a special museum activity to explore art history and the politics of institutional critique on campus