GCCC Nursing Dept. Receives Grant to Improve Lab Technology

GCCC

[Garden City, KS] May 28, 2020 – Nursing students at Garden City Community College will benefit from a new, high-tech medication dose delivery systems, thanks to a recently-approved grant from the Kansas Board of Regents.

KBOR approved $32,022 from the Kansas Nursing Grant Initiative last week, providing about half the funds necessary to purchase two high-tech medication delivery systems for GCCC’s Erdene Corley Simulation Lab.   

The simulation lab, a state-of-the-art nursing classroom resembling a hospital floor, currently boasts medication carts for student use and learning that represent outdated delivery systems, according to GCCC’s nursing director Patricia Zeller.

Zeller said the new equipment will provide nursing students at all levels – from medication aides to those enrolled in registered nursing – the opportunity to train with equipment they’ll encounter in hospitals and nursing homes once they enter the workforce.

“This is a huge upgrade for us,” Zeller said. “We need to simulate the most up to date and real-life equipment for students entering health careers. This equipment allows us to do just that.”

Students of nursing learn the “seven rights of medication administration,” according to Zeller, which includes the right medicine, right dose, right route, right patient, right time, right documentation, and right indication.

The new, digital delivery systems will assist with these critical checks and balances, according to the nursing director. Each piece of equipment boasts a barcode scanner, a 15” touch screen, a 25-drawer base unit, and drawers that are configurable to storing multiple medications.

GCCC will also be able to purchase sample packs of medication supplies and related educational software to use with the system.

“We are excited to integrate this new technology into our lab for the benefit of our students, our faculty, and even the patients our students will one day care for,” Zeller added.

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