Taking a mindful approach
A mindful approach
Loyola Nursing creates a distinctive simulation experience that adheres to the Jesuit tradition of cura personalis
By Ted Gregory
Photos by Lukas Keapproth
It's a familiar sight as Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing undergraduates prepare for a day of simulations at the Lake Shore and Health Sciences campuses.
A stuffed toy wolf—LU Wolf, the Loyola University Chicago mascot—sits on a conference room table, surrounded by students and an instructor who will lead them through training that closely resembles authentic patient care.
Known as simulation, the immersive lab experience utilizes sophisticated mannequins—known as manikins within nursing—some of which talk, show emotion, and present other patient traits. The school also incorporates virtual reality and human actors called standardized patients. The simulation curriculum allows students to apply and practice concepts and skills in a safe space before taking those skills to real-world environments.
Each LU Wolf—nicknamed “Wolfie” in the simulation lab—serves a unique purpose. They remind the students in a playful but effective way of Loyola Nursing’s Jesuit-centered approach to patient care. Cura personalis, caring for the whole person, is a key element of the University’s Jesuit philosophy.
The simulation lab is one way Loyola Nursing transforms that philosophy into action.
An Ignatian approach
When Associate Professor Carol Kostovich, assistant dean of innovative educational strategies and simulation, started leading the program in 2014, it lacked a standardized debriefing model. She looked for one that included Jesuit values and didn’t find any.
So she and other simulation faculty created one. Their I-HEART model provides a structured framework to encourage students to think deeply about their simulation experience, in keeping with the traditional Jesuit focus on reflection
and discernment:
I: Introduction
H: How do you feel?
E: Engaging the human spirit
A: Acknowledge priorities of care
R: Reflection on learning outcomes
T: Takeaways
Throughout the seven-hour day in the simulation lab, faculty members incorporate I-HEART into their questioning as they present students with different scenarios about patient care, then ask, “What would Wolfie do?”
It’s another way of posing the question: What would a Loyola nurse grounded in Jesuit values do?
To start the day, one student reads aloud the Legend of the Wolf and Kettle, the story behind St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. According to legend, his prosperous family generously fed others outside the household, even the local wild animals. The instructor then leads a discussion about how the story relates to patient care and Loyola’s social justice mission.
Those lessons about Ignatian spirituality are woven throughout the day, including in debriefings held several times throughout a simulation session: how to strive for more while serving others, and how to recognize the impact of social injustices on patient health.
Making a connection
The Jesuit-centered approach aligns with Loyola Nursing’s focus on “presence,” in which a nurse makes an interpersonal connection with the patient. During simulation, particularly in debriefings, students and professors often discuss how nurses demonstrate presence with a patient, Kostovich said.
“We talk a lot about story and what the patient’s story is,” she said. “What did the patient tell you and how does that impact the plan of care that you’ll develop for the patient?”
Those lessons in connecting with the patient remain with students long after they graduate.
“It definitely reminds me to care for the whole person,” said Eric Juds, a 2021 Loyola Nursing graduate who works as an emergency room nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “We deal with a lot of high emotions in the emergency department—with patients, with family members. The cura personalis that they really emphasize at Loyola just reinforces in me that the patient you’re treating is not just a number on a board.”
Jesuit values in action
Qualitative research that Kostovich and a colleague conducted with junior-level students shows they absorb Jesuit values in the sim lab.
“At first I was nervous because I felt I had to say something,” wrote a student about interacting with a particular patient during their clinical experience, “but then I remembered back to simulation and thought about the power of listening, and I felt special that someone would trust me with so much information.”
As part of that research, Kostovich asked students to share examples of when they were present with their patients or when they witnessed a nurse be present with a patient. It has brought out compelling moments.
One student simply stayed to watch The Price Is Right TV show with a lonely patient; one listened intently while a patient shared an emotional story that caused him great pain; another walked into a hospital room where a patient was receiving last rites and prayed with the patient and her son.
“They gave phenomenal examples that really brought me to tears,” Kostovich recalled. “They get it. They understand how to be present. I know our students are doing it.”
Absorbing Jesuit values in simulation and throughout their nursing education will serve those students well throughout their careers, added Clinical Assistant Professor Joanne Dunderdale, part of the team that developed I-HEART.
“You can pass all the tests in the world, but at the end of the day, you’re really caring for someone in their most vulnerable, fearful, private time,” she said. “They’re not just the gallbladder in Room 24. Infusing those Jesuit values will always bring you back to: You’re not just treating the disease process. You’re treating the whole person. They have so much more to inform us of who they are and that will help them to heal.”
Another member of the simulation faculty, Clinical Assistant Professor Nancy Raschke-Deischstetter, said those values matter to patients.
“Patients can sense if you’re genuine. They might not remember the nurse’s name or what the nurse did to make their physical health improve, but I think they will always remember how the nurse made them feel,” she said. “When you carry those Jesuit values with you in nursing, it goes a long way toward promoting positive health outcomes.”
Loyola Nursing creates a distinctive simulation experience that adheres to the Jesuit tradition of cura personalis
By Ted Gregory
Photos by Lukas Keapproth
It's a familiar sight as Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing undergraduates prepare for a day of simulations at the Lake Shore and Health Sciences campuses.
A stuffed toy wolf—LU Wolf, the Loyola University Chicago mascot—sits on a conference room table, surrounded by students and an instructor who will lead them through training that closely resembles authentic patient care.
Known as simulation, the immersive lab experience utilizes sophisticated mannequins—known as manikins within nursing—some of which talk, show emotion, and present other patient traits. The school also incorporates virtual reality and human actors called standardized patients. The simulation curriculum allows students to apply and practice concepts and skills in a safe space before taking those skills to real-world environments.
Each LU Wolf—nicknamed “Wolfie” in the simulation lab—serves a unique purpose. They remind the students in a playful but effective way of Loyola Nursing’s Jesuit-centered approach to patient care. Cura personalis, caring for the whole person, is a key element of the University’s Jesuit philosophy.
The simulation lab is one way Loyola Nursing transforms that philosophy into action.
An Ignatian approach
When Associate Professor Carol Kostovich, assistant dean of innovative educational strategies and simulation, started leading the program in 2014, it lacked a standardized debriefing model. She looked for one that included Jesuit values and didn’t find any.
So she and other simulation faculty created one. Their I-HEART model provides a structured framework to encourage students to think deeply about their simulation experience, in keeping with the traditional Jesuit focus on reflection
and discernment:
I: Introduction
H: How do you feel?
E: Engaging the human spirit
A: Acknowledge priorities of care
R: Reflection on learning outcomes
T: Takeaways
Throughout the seven-hour day in the simulation lab, faculty members incorporate I-HEART into their questioning as they present students with different scenarios about patient care, then ask, “What would Wolfie do?”
It’s another way of posing the question: What would a Loyola nurse grounded in Jesuit values do?
To start the day, one student reads aloud the Legend of the Wolf and Kettle, the story behind St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. According to legend, his prosperous family generously fed others outside the household, even the local wild animals. The instructor then leads a discussion about how the story relates to patient care and Loyola’s social justice mission.
Those lessons about Ignatian spirituality are woven throughout the day, including in debriefings held several times throughout a simulation session: how to strive for more while serving others, and how to recognize the impact of social injustices on patient health.
Making a connection
The Jesuit-centered approach aligns with Loyola Nursing’s focus on “presence,” in which a nurse makes an interpersonal connection with the patient. During simulation, particularly in debriefings, students and professors often discuss how nurses demonstrate presence with a patient, Kostovich said.
“We talk a lot about story and what the patient’s story is,” she said. “What did the patient tell you and how does that impact the plan of care that you’ll develop for the patient?”
Those lessons in connecting with the patient remain with students long after they graduate.
“It definitely reminds me to care for the whole person,” said Eric Juds, a 2021 Loyola Nursing graduate who works as an emergency room nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “We deal with a lot of high emotions in the emergency department—with patients, with family members. The cura personalis that they really emphasize at Loyola just reinforces in me that the patient you’re treating is not just a number on a board.”
Jesuit values in action
Qualitative research that Kostovich and a colleague conducted with junior-level students shows they absorb Jesuit values in the sim lab.
“At first I was nervous because I felt I had to say something,” wrote a student about interacting with a particular patient during their clinical experience, “but then I remembered back to simulation and thought about the power of listening, and I felt special that someone would trust me with so much information.”
As part of that research, Kostovich asked students to share examples of when they were present with their patients or when they witnessed a nurse be present with a patient. It has brought out compelling moments.
One student simply stayed to watch The Price Is Right TV show with a lonely patient; one listened intently while a patient shared an emotional story that caused him great pain; another walked into a hospital room where a patient was receiving last rites and prayed with the patient and her son.
“They gave phenomenal examples that really brought me to tears,” Kostovich recalled. “They get it. They understand how to be present. I know our students are doing it.”
Absorbing Jesuit values in simulation and throughout their nursing education will serve those students well throughout their careers, added Clinical Assistant Professor Joanne Dunderdale, part of the team that developed I-HEART.
“You can pass all the tests in the world, but at the end of the day, you’re really caring for someone in their most vulnerable, fearful, private time,” she said. “They’re not just the gallbladder in Room 24. Infusing those Jesuit values will always bring you back to: You’re not just treating the disease process. You’re treating the whole person. They have so much more to inform us of who they are and that will help them to heal.”
Another member of the simulation faculty, Clinical Assistant Professor Nancy Raschke-Deischstetter, said those values matter to patients.
“Patients can sense if you’re genuine. They might not remember the nurse’s name or what the nurse did to make their physical health improve, but I think they will always remember how the nurse made them feel,” she said. “When you carry those Jesuit values with you in nursing, it goes a long way toward promoting positive health outcomes.”