Suicide Prevention Lab

In a simulation suite in the new Nursing and Science building, students in a Rutgers School of Nursing‒Camden class are learning to work with patients and help prevent suicides.

In a simulation suite in the new Nursing and Science building, students in a Rutgers School of Nursing‒Camden class are learning to work with patients and help prevent suicides.

Using standardized patients, trained actors play the role of someone who may be at risk of taking their own life.

“The standardized patients are an opportunity for students to practice not only the suicide assessment but how to therapeutically communicate with patients and be comfortable being present with them,” says Mary Wunnenberg, an assistant clinical professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing‒Camden.

“The actors did a really terrific job at making these situations seem real,” says Kevin Ziemba, of Haddonfield, a student in the Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing course. “I felt like I was talking to somebody that was representing what they said that they did.”

The interaction between the nursing student and patient are filmed, and following the session, students review the video with their instructors.

“We really try to focus on what the students did right and touch on ways that they can improve,” says Wunnenberg.

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