These words were boldly printed on the shirt of a petite girl staring at a metal brass sculpture of a nurse and a physician examining a patient done by National Artist Vicente Manansala and installed on the university quadrangle.

Who could blame her for taking such pride. Her alma mater, the Far Eastern University, is one of the top performing nursing schools in the country in terms of board licensure performance and employment.

Just recently, FEU hogged the headlines again with the inauguration of its Virtual Integrated Education Simulation (VINES) Laboratory which takes nursing education to the next level.

The VINES lab boasts of cutting-edge training and equipment to prepare students fully-well for the real (hospital) world.

"Lab" affair

Opened on December 2, 2006, the FEU-Institute of Nursing (FEU-IN) virtual lab provides a learning platform that prepares students to take on the demands of a global tomorrow.

Traditionally, skills laboratory in the Philippines connotes an area where beds are placed and first generation mannequins are laid out. Not for FEU. The university came up with a sophisticated, state-of-the-art laboratory which simulates real hospital setting.

"FEU-IN was preparing for its accreditation at that time the idea for the virtual lab was hatched and one of the areas they needed to beef up was the skills laboratory," relates FEU-IN Dean Annabelle Borromeo who got involved with the program in 2005 when the idea started to snowball into something grander.

"As a nurse, I’m married to the idea of ensuring that the nurses in the Philippines should be second to none in terms of facilities. So, when I first came in as a consultant for the VINES Lab, I brought with me my experiences not just as a practicing nurse but also in building hospitals," explains Borromeo, a graduate of the UP-PGH School of Nursing, who was also the first chief nursing officer of the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa. Borromeo also obtained her master of science in Nursing from the University of Texas Health Science in Houston, Texas , and a Ph.d, major in nursing, minor in statistics from the Texas Woman’s University. At present, she is the quality consultant for the Joint Commission on International Accreditation (JCIA) for the Division of Nursing at St. Luke’s Medical Center .

For the virtual lab, there were three models that the administrators and consultants had to choose from. The first was the ampi-theatre style which features a work area below with elevated bleachers. The second was the common model where there are big room with beds. The third was a combination of both.

"We integrated hospital care into the curriculum by coming up with a skills laboratory that looks and feels like a real hospital (equipped with real gadgets) so our students could work in almost familiar environment whether they decide to work in public or private hospitals here and abroad. And so, the FEU-IN VINES Laboratory was born," relates Borromeo.

Just like the real thing

FEU-IN’s simulated laboratory proudly carries the Gold Standard, a yardstick by which all other nursing skills laboratories are measured.

The hospital set-up closely approximates the standards of the JCIA. For example, the doors should have a certain width to accommodate stretchers, the O.R. (operating room) should have swing doors, and the sink-to-bed ratio should be one sink for every two beds.

In addition, AUSTCO, the leader in quality nurse call systems, has partnered with FEU to house the advanced nurse call system in the Philippines .

"This is very sophisticated as it provides the fastest response to the patient. With the Nurse Call system, students will learn to respond to patient calls within two minutes of the call, enhancing their interpersonal skills," explains Prof. Young.

The Virtual Laboratory also provides its students realistic medical conditions through the use of third-generation computer-based simulators.

HAL, the human patient simulator, is programmed to experience realistic medical complications which students can learn from. "The instructor controls HAL through a wireless computer," notes assistant dean Gloria Yang.

There’s also a mannequin that gives birth. Through Noelle, the maternal interactive birthing model, nursing students are able to assess pregnancies and births.

On top of these human patient simulators, the VINES lab also boasts of an Intravenous Insertion Simulator which presents varying degrees of difficulty and complications in the IV therapy procedure. It allows the user to feel how IV therapy procedures are executed.

Another interesting feature of the virtual laboratory is the video-conferencing terminals that capture master lectures and demonstrations of nursing procedures.

"Captured videos are streamed live to other classrooms or computer labs, where viewers can actually interact with the lecturer. In most cases, the material is saved for later viewing, either in group settings at classrooms or laboratories," Prof. Yang enthuses.

Committed to serve

To be globally competitive, a nurse must acquire basic skills in three areas while still in nursing school. These are the technical, relational and critical thinking skills.

"These have to be in equal measure. Suppose you’re very technical. You’re so good in administering the IV, but you’re not talking to your patient. Do you think you’re a good nurse? Some have good relation skills but lack judgment. For example, your patient is having difficulty breathing, deadma ka pa rin. Be a critical thinker. As a nurse, you should be able to read the signs early enough so you don’t reach a crisis point," Dean Borromeo points out.

A career in nursing is a calling. It can’t be anything else.

"The motivation has to be pure. Money should not be the sole consideration. When a nurse commits a mistake, she can’t just erase it with a click of the button. Always remember that human life is at stake," Dean Borromeo explains.