On Sept. 20, Northern Michigan University hosted a Nursing Alumni event for Homecoming weekend in the Science Building. It offered an alumni panel presentation, tours of the current simulation labs and refreshments. It was a way for alumni and current students to connect, and for alumni to see the new updated facilities.

“We had a couple of alumni who were interested in continuing to have a relationship with the school. Last year, we formed a committee of a couple of alumni, a few faculty in the School of Nursing and a student, and we started to talk about how we can connect our alumni with our faculty, staff and current students,” Associate Dean and Director of the School of Nursing Katie Menard said.

From the very beginning, the event was bustling with conversations between alumni and current students who were eager to learn about the opportunities they could pursue after graduation.

Multiple alumni who were graduates from the 1970s to 1990s were interested in the updated equipment used to teach students. Tours were given to showcase the updated facilities to alumni of the nursing program.

“One of the graduates that I brought on a tour just a little while ago was saying that they didn’t have manikins when she went to nursing school. That they just went out and always took care of real people,” Menard said.

One of the tours was led by Julie Dobson, a nursing support and simulation specialist, who explained the layout of the simulation labs. 

“When we started out, we had SIM Labs and since then we’ve upgraded all of our simulators. We have six rooms plus a control room,” Dobson said.

In these simulation rooms were a variety of manikins, ranging from adults to babies. The rooms have different simulations for nursing students to practice in. Manikins could be seen lying on hospital beds with IV poles and other special equipment next to them or lying down with limbs in slings.

“I think in the next few years we are going to start seeing our simulators walk just like a robot,” Dobson said.

Alumni and students left with more in-depth information about the nursing program and the new technology being used within it.

Currently, the available programs that students can pursue within NMU’s School of Nursing are MSN (Master of Science in Nursing), BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing), RN to BSN (Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing) and LPN to BSN (Licensed Practical Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing).