Georgian College

INNOvATION AT gEORgIAN In the Sadlon Centre for Health and Wellness at the Barrie Campus, nursing students have classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art human patient simulators to practise a variety of health care scenarios. If they wanted to study their health assessment skills and techniques late at night or on the weekend at home, they were left without a simulated study aid – until now. Yvonne Galbraith has been working in simulation in Georgian's Nursing programs for three years. She has combined her 36 years of nursing experience with her passion for art (she is an alumna of Georgian's Fine Arts program, 2002) to create the Study Buddy. "I was telling students to practice on a pillow, to pretend it was their patient. Working creatively, I was able to integrate art, nursing and simulation to make a low-cost, light-weight learning tool," she says. The Study Buddy is made from polyester fibre and duct tape. It weighs about three pounds and costs approximately $23 to assemble. The buddy can be used to practise landmarking for health assessments including giving injections, taking blood pressure, removing sutures, etc. Since fall 2012, 40 students have completed Galbraith's Study Buddy workshops. They are now in their third year of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. As part of her research, Galbraith requires the students to complete two questionnaires. She is part of a team that is collecting data to determine the effectiveness of the Study Buddy as an educational tool, along with the Dean of Health and Wellness Dr. Cassandra Thompson, Associate Dean Sean Madorin and recently retired Associate Dean Liz Erwin. Galbraith recently presented her Study Buddy concept at a Society for Simulation in Healthcare international conference in Florida. Health care simulation at home Yvonne Galbraith shows the Study Buddy, a low-cost, light-weight learning tool for nursing students. Virtually every First Nations language in Ontario is at a crisis point in terms of fluency levels, an issue that has been recognized and is of concern within Aboriginal communities. Working closely with its Anishnabe Education and Training Circle, Georgian has launched the first diploma in indigenous language studies in the province. The inaugural class of 15 students who began Anishnaabemowin Language Programming in September is learning this oral language and history through conversation, storytelling, games, song and prayer with language mentors. "We want to create a language nest that remains as true to the cultural way of teaching the language as possible," says Program Co-ordinator Rebecca Wakelin. The goals of the students are personal and varied. Some want to save the language by becoming language activators and facilitators in their local community and others are aiming for cultural self- actualization. Learn more about the program at georgiancollege.ca/aboriginal. The inaugural class of students in Anishnaabemowin Language Programming learn through storytelling with their language mentors at the Aboriginal Resource Centre. First-of-its-kind aboriginal language program GeorgianView 2013/14 | 27

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