Lucy Tull Nursing Resource Lab Assistant
CurrentAt one of the only student run skills labs in Maryland, we are responsible for teaching and verifying that nursing students know everything pertinent about a skill as well as how to perform it before they reach the hospital setting with real clients. After they are first taught by the professor, they are able to make appointments with the lab assistants for either required practice or competency verification. Since it might have been weeks since the professor's taught them, required practice allows the student to review the skill as well as the indications, contraindications, and other pertinent information. They are able to ask questions about how to perform the skill as well as general questions about navigating the nursing program and hospital. The lab provides mannequins and other medical equipment that try to recreate the hospital setting as best as possible. When the students come in for competency verification, the expectation is that they know the skill front to back and are able to perform it in front of the assistants without asking any questions. This is a test and many students take more than one try to pass. As a nursing student as well as a lab assistant, it's sometimes hard to "fail" these students because many of them are your close friends. Creating boundaries and thinking of the clients first is a skill that we all develop as lab assistants.