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Amy’s Ostomy Stoma
Amy Crowder-Klobofski,a resource Nurse at Montana State University-Northern was in our Moulage class at the Midwest Nurse Educators Academy in North Dakota. She came up with this clever stoma. What she did was mix some red food coloring with corn starch. She mixed the two together until she had the consistency she wanted and then put the mix in one of the fingers of a disposable glove. Cut off the finger from the glove and tied it off. She then wraped the finger around itself and the end result looks like an ostomy stoma. I bet if you played around with the food coloring (mix a little blue in there) you could show the learner different stages of a stoma from healthy to one with poor circulation. Thanks Amy for being so creative. Kaaren
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Intestine
One of my EMS friends gave me this neat intestine to use for scenarios involving evisceration or dehiscence. What hw did was go to the local meat locker and purchase a sausage casing and stuffed it with dry oatmeal. Looks good and real. You can do this with a condom if you want an smaller intestine and wrap rubber bands around the intestine to look like segments. Some people are SOOO clever.
Kaaren
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Graduation Treats Diplomas and Graduation Caps
Diplomas:
Ingredients:
Cream filled wafer straws (like Pepperidge Farm Pieroette Cookies)
1/8 inch ribbon or
Licorice that you can pull apart into a thin stringDirections:
Cut wafer in half (Makes 2 diplomas!)
Tie a piece of ribbon around the center to make the diploma tie.
(We made these for a Day-Care provider’s daughter. She wanted the Diplomas to be edible so we tied licorise around the cookie so the little kids would not try to eat the ribbon.
Graduation CapsIngredients:
Mini Peanut butter cups
Hershey Chocolate Squares (2 per each cap).
Icing in a tube
M&M’s
Fruit Roll UpsDirections:
Unwrap the peanut butter cups and place upside down on tray. Add a dollop of icing (to use as glue) in center of cup a place 2 squares of chocolate over the icing. If you are good with icing drag a bit of icing from the center of the chocolate to the edge and over the side to make the tassel OR IF YOU ARE LIKE ME, add another dollop of icing glue and slice the Fruit Roll Up into very thin sliced and drape it over the squares and down the side to make your tassel. Another dab of icing to hold a M&M in place and you have the cap. These went over well and the kids of all ages liked them.
Kaaren -
2010 Midwest Nurse Educator’s Academy
Jeanne and I just returned from Grand Forks, North Dakota. This is the second year that we have participated in this event. Once again the program was outstanding.
We brought two of our collegues with us, Faith Johnson and Lisa Thielke. Jeanne and Faith presented “Evaluation of the Clinical Simulation Experience” The participants viewed video clips of a simulation experience and saw how the video was used in the debriefing process. They also saw a sample of a clinical evaluation tool and how it was adapted for use during the clinical simulation experience. Jeanne and FAith are working on this project through the NLN HITS project, as they were chosen as scholars through the Health Information Technology Scholars program in 2009.Lisa and I presented “Moulage for Manikins to Help Stimulate the World”. In otherwords we had some show and tell on various moulage techniques and discussed some of our resources to help make realistic simulations without breaking the bank. The participants hd time to “cook” up a few simple recipes and I think a good time was had by all. This group was very creative. I will share some pictures of the results a little bit later.
Jeanne and I also help the Laerdal reps with “How to be Successful in Simulation. ”
We had a good turnout and a lot of interest. Laerdal brought the new SimMan 3G. and we had a lot of gremlins playing with the equipment. We thought it was the manikin but it turned out to be the Y-Fi. We thank every one for their understanding and their patience. A lot of good information was shared.The Keynote Speakers were terrific.
Pam Jeffries from Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimor, Md opened the Academy with “Enhancing and Understanding More Realistic Clinical Simulations in the Curriculum” then she was joined by Scott Engum, Md from Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN. They discussed “Interdisciplinary Collisions: Bringing the Healthcare Professionals Together”.
I can not tell you how much I enjoyed this conference.I hope they do it again next year.
Kaaren
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New Use for Old Skin
After Mike did all that work to change the skin on SimMan, I did not have what it takes to throw the old skin away. Jeanne and I have been playing with burn scenarios. One of us, I think it was Jeanne, thought maybe we could do something with the old arm skin. So I came up with the following idea. I took some pre made blisters that I bought from Image Perspectives in Carson City, Nevada. I attached them to the arm with Effects Gel and let them alone overnight. We powdered the blisters with a reddish blush powder and sprinkled fireplace ash over the arm to make it look like a new burn. We also burnt a t-shirt and then put some of the soot around Bobby’s nose and mouth to get the student to think about possible inhalation burns too. The instructor who does this scenario ALWAYS has the student cut off the T-shirt. Believe me! We go through a lot of shirts. So now that it is time for spring cleaning, think of the manikins when you get your old clothes ready for Good Will. Bag up some of the worst and give them to us. I promise you they will go to a good cause.
Now I’m after a chest skin to play with and do some more burns. Let me tell you a use chest skin is about as easy to find as hen’s teeth. Anyone out there want to donate one. Call me. Kaaren
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Taking Care of IV Arms
Just finished a day of Trauma Drama and had all these IV arms to take care of. We use several different Manikins in our lab. Several do not have IV capability so we place an IV arm next to the Manikin’s arm and hook up the blood and let the student start the IV . When the day is over Maggie, Tolli and I go around and flush out the arms with distilled water and a final flush with a 10% alcohol distilled water solution . To help dry out the veins we force air through the veins with a 60 ml syringe and hang the arms upside down (literally) on a small IV pole on the counter by the sink. -
Changing Veins (again!)
Jeanne and I were changing SimMan’s vein after some heavy duty clinical days.As usual we got “stuck” at the wrist. We had lubricated the arm and the inside of the skin with liquid soap and even tried the manikin lubricant spray. We still needed help. So we called on our trusty maintenance men to lend a hand and some brute strength. Take a look at my favorite person at Ridgewater. This is Mike. Notice how red in the face he is and also check out the white knuckles. With a lot of strength Mike finally got the skin over the wrist and it slid up the arm without any problem. I hate to think that some day this man is going to Valsalva, slow his pulse and we are going to have to save his life. I keep thinking there has to be an easier way to do this. And no I do not want to buy the ”3-G” doll. Anyone out there with a better method ,PLEASE share it with us.
Kaaren
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Judi Improvises "sunlight"
In April of 2009, Judi Leisk shared her trick of using Clearasil to remove marker and ink stains from the manikins’ skin. Into a new lab without windows, she was no longer able to give the manikins a sun bath. She now shares this trick.
Judi says. “If you have a “black light” handy, it seems to help speed up the process. We just moved into a new building, and the skills labs are now in windowless basement classrooms, so I was trying to improvise “sunlight”.
I have a black light bulb that I put in a free-standing exam light, so I can position the lamp directly over the affected area.”
I bet the manikins miss the sunbathing, but they are spot free.
Thanks again Judi. It is always good to hear from you.
Kaaren
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Mantoux blebs
I know this is nuts, but this is what we did. (And yes, I know we don’t have gloves on and there is no excuse for that. I apologize, please forgive us.)We wanted the students to get a feel for giving a Mantoux without actually sticking each other. SO we bought some very inexpensive hot dogs and with tuberculin syringes we blew up the skins. You simply draw up water in the syringe and very carefully insert the needle just under the hot dog skin and inject it . This can get a little tricky but after a few attempts everyone was able to accomplish the task and get a descent bleb. You want to get rid of the hot dogs right after the class. We found all kinds of funky looking bloated hot dogs when they were left in the lab over the weekend. Trust me not a pretty sight.
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Spring is almost here. The deer are on the move.
THIS SAYS IT ALL ABOUT THIS WINTER. DON’T YOU AGREE?
