News for
CougGroup 12/8/2019
Basketball: No. 24 Gonzaga
women beat Washington State 76-53
Dec 9, 2018 Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. -- LeeAnne Wirth
scored 12 points, on 6-of-7 shooting, to lead six Gonzaga players in double
figures and the No. 24 Bulldogs beat Washington State 76-53 on Sunday.
Jill Townsend and Katie Campbell
each had 11 points and Laura Stockton, Zykera Rice and Chandler Smith scored 10
apiece for Gonzaga. The Bulldogs (9-1), who are off to the best start in
program history, have won three in a row against WSU and five straight overall.
Wirth made a layup and Rice hit a
jumper to make it 21-17 and Gonzaga led the rest of the way. Maria
Kostourkova's layup with 3:14 left in the second quarter pulled the Cougars to
25-24 but they missed their next six field-goal attempts and committed six
turnovers while going scoreless for the next 7 1/2 minutes. Six different GU
players scored during a 15-0 run that made it 40-24 midway through the third
and WSU trailed by double figures from there.
Borislava Hristova led Washington
State (4-5) with 19 points and Kostourkova scored 10. Those two combined to
made 11 of 19 from the field while the rest of the Cougars were just 9-of-31
(29 percent) shooting.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
MEN BASKETBALL
Not Cougs of years past
WSU’s revamped defense stifles NCAA
tournament mainstay New Mexico State
By COLTON CLARK OF Lewiston TRiB Dec
8, 2019
SPOKANE — The Washington State of
last year wouldn’t have been so resolute.
In fact, that Cougars men’s
basketball team lost to NCAA tournament mainstay New Mexico State twice.
Last year’s WSU didn’t emphasize
defense as much as this one does under first-year coach Kyle Smith, who just
earned himself somewhat of a signature win by way of his signature style.
Wazzu, which has transitioned into a
defensive-minded group with Smith at the helm, upended the notable mid-major
Aggies 63-54 on Saturday at Spokane Arena, employing to great effect their
fresh methodology: lockdown defense — a quick-switching, shot-contesting,
turnover-forcing shield — to stymie pesky NMSU in spurts and hold off an Aggie
rally down the stretch.
“I can’t think of anyone that didn’t
have a great defensive effort,” said Smith, whose team improved to 5-4. “By far
our best effort (of the year).”
As it has been so far this season,
the Cougs’ offense was inconsistent, steady over short periods but sluggish
enough to permit NMSU runs of its own, which trimmed three separate
double-digit Wazzu leads to single possessions.
Sophomore forward CJ Elleby
represented WSU’s lone double-digit scorer. He poured in 20, nine of those
coming on a solo spree to begin the second half and help push the Cougars’ lead
to as much as 14.
Then came another of the many lulls
for a team that shot 17-of-48.
“We have a tendency to kinda take
quick shots in the shot clock, and when we do that, it sets the other team up
for transition,” said Elleby, who also grabbed seven rebounds. “When we buckle
down, we slow down our offense, we swing it side to side. Coach harps on it a
lot — get it up and across the floor.”
WSU’s offense had its ebbs and
flows. Its defense didn’t fluctuate. Open Aggie looks were seldom. So too was separation
at the perimeter. The Cougs led for 36 minutes.
NMSU (5-5), which has made the
national tournament three consecutive years and eight times since 2010, shot 34
percent from the floor and 18 percent on 3-pointers, which it prefers.
It coughed it up 17 times and
couldn’t muster as much offense as Wazzu, particularly in the final three
minutes, when the game was within the Aggies’ grasp.
“It wasn’t pretty — we lost our
balance there a little bit — but we stumbled into it, and got tougher and made
our free throws,” Smith said. “You could tell we were getting a little tight.
“I’ve done this enough. You gotta
fight through it, play through it, and they did a good job of that.”
The Cougars, who had 13 giveaways,
were buoyed in the last 10 minutes by senior forward Jeff Pollard, who flipped
in a few clutch layins and kept NMSU off the glass to thwart a run. The Aggies
cut it to 53-49 with 3:20 on the clock, but WSU kept responding.
Pollard, who described himself as
doing “the dirty work,” had nine points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
“They went on a late run and it was
more just refocusing the team and getting back to what had gotten us the lead,”
Pollard said, “and that was defending and rebounding, which slipped when they
got going.”
Elleby, who Smith said has matured
from “Robin” last year to “Batman” this season, astutely chose his fights and
earned chances at the free-throw line, where he went 10-of-13.
“You don’t always necessarily fight
fire with fire — you just pick the spots,” said Smith, who challenged Elleby in
the preseason to make his way to the foul line more. “They couldn’t keep him in
front of them.”
Said Elleby, a top-five scorer in
the Pac-12: “I knew I had to be a little more aggressive and get to the rim”
because the Cougars’ hit-and-miss deep-ball and mid-range offense had provided
Aggie retorts.
Elleby broke open an offensive
standstill when he rose up in NMSU’s key and swiped a pass midway through the
first half, then lobbed it deep to free-running Noah Williams, who flipped it
in. Elleby then canned a 3, sparking WSU’s offense to an 11-0 run that
furnished a nine-point halftime lead.
Wazzu canned seven 3s in the first
half, one being the first of emerging forward Tony Miller's career. Miller
supplied a lift off the bench from start to finish, scoring nine points and
collecting five boards.
The Cougs, headed by the versatile
play of Elleby, sprinted out to a 14-point edge four minutes into the second,
but committed three consecutive turnovers soon after and let the Aggies hang
around — and even cut it to 41-39 at 11:30.
But WSU’s signature defense
prevailed, blanking NMSU for just more than four minutes and enabling a 12-2
burst from its offense, enough to survive another scoring deficiency at the
end.
“Just take away the 3 and survive on
the glass, barely,” Smith said.
For NMSU, Trevelin Queen and Jabari
Rice combined for 28 points and 16 rebounds, but were overall the team’s only
bright spots.
These might not exactly be the
dominant Western Athletic Conference Aggies of years past, but it’s still the
top win of Smith’s first season. It’s also proof these aren’t the Cougars of
years past.
“That DNA is strong. They were a
possession away from beating Auburn (in the tournament),” Smith said. “A lot of
those guys out there were in that game last year, and that says a lot for us.”
NEW MEXICO ST. (5-5)
Bobbitt 2-3 1-2 6, Aurrecoechea 4-7
0-1 8, Buchanan 1-5 0-0 3, Queen 6-19 0-0 14, T.Brown 0-6 0-0 0, McCants 1-4
2-6 4, McNair 0-0 0-0 0, R.Brown 0-0 2-2 2, S.Williams 1-5 0-0 3, Rice 6-12 2-3
14. Totals 21-61 7-14 54.
WASHINGTON ST. (5-4)
Elleby 4-8 10-13 20, Kunc 2-5 0-0 6,
Pollard 4-10 1-3 9, Robinson 0-5 0-0 0, Shead 1-4 2-2 5, Miller 3-4 2-2 9,
Cannon 1-3 4-4 7, Bonton 1-5 0-0 3, N.Williams 1-4 2-2 4. Totals 17-48 21-26
63.
Halftime — Washington St., 30-21.
3-point goals — New Mexico St. 5-28 (Queen 2-8, Bobbitt 1-2, Buchanan 1-3,
S.Williams 1-3, Aurrecoechea 0-1, McCants 0-2, Rice 0-4, T.Brown 0-5),
Washington St. 8-21 (Kunc 2-4, Elleby 2-6, Miller 1-1, Cannon 1-2, Shead 1-2,
Bonton 1-3, Robinson 0-1, N.Williams 0-1, Pollard 0-1). Fouled out — None.
Rebounds — New Mexico St. 39 (Rice 9), Washington St. 35 (Pollard 10). Assists
— New Mexico St. 13 (Buchanan 4), Washington St. 11 (Robinson 4). Total fouls —
New Mexico St. 22, Washington St. 20. A — 1,222.
::::
WSU football
High-powered offenses with
contrasting styles set to meet when Washington State takes on Air Force in
Cheez-It Bowl
By Theo Lawson Trib of Lewiston
12/8/2019
CHEEZ-IT BOWL
At Chase Field, Phoenix
➤Friday,
Dec. 27: Air Force Falcons at Washington State Cougars, 7:15 p.m. PDT TV: ESPN
When Cheez-It Bowl public relations
director Scott Leightman introduced the teams participating in this year’s
Arizona showcase during a teleconference Sunday afternoon, he teased an “offensive
explosion” between Washington State and No. 24 Air Force, who each enter the
postseason averaging more than 34 points per contest and should give the other
plenty to think about as bowl prep takes place over the next three weeks.
Of course, standards aren’t too high
for a bowl game that produced just two touchdowns and 17 points when Cal and
TCU met at Phoenix’s Chase Field last year. There were more interceptions (9)
than Cal points (7) in TCU’s narrow victory and both teams finished the game
with backup quarterbacks behind center.
Nonetheless, the 2019 game,
scheduled for Dec. 27 at 7:15 p.m. PT (ESPN), should be a refresher for anyone
still waiting to get their offensive fix.
The Cougars and Falcons have no
problem getting into the end zone, but while the Cheez-It Bowl may be an
offensive marathon between teams that respectively rank 11th and tied for 22nd
nationally in points per game, it’ll also be an appropriate example of the old
adage that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
In Pullman, Mike Leach is known for
his simple but potent Air Raid schemes, which have produced the nation’s past
two passing leaders in Anthony Gordon and Gardner Minshew. The Cougars have
thrown for 5,332 yards this season – 303 more than second-place LSU, even though
the Tigers have played one more game.
In Colorado Springs, Troy Calhoun
has shown the same dogged determination and unwavering attitude toward the
triple option, a run-first scheme that often forces the defense to focus on
three ball-carriers on a single play. The Falcons have attempted just 114
passes this season – second-fewest in the country – but they’ve rushed for 37
touchdowns and rank third in the country at 292.7 yards per game.
So, while Leach and Calhoun may
never swap playbooks, the coaches have plenty of mutual respect for the other’s
strategy.
“Other than this bowl game, being
American and everything, I always rooted for Air Force,” Leach said. “But the
opportunity to play a great rushing team like them, an option team, we’re
excited about that.”
Despite the stark contrasts in how
the Cougars and Falcons move the football, Leach actually believes they draw on
similar concepts, both striving to distribute offensive touches evenly.
“If I didn’t throw the ball, I’d run
the option,” Leach said, “and why I admire the option is I always felt like our
brand of football really kind of started with the wishbone, because what the
wishbone always did such a good job of is distribution. All the skill positions
touch the ball and it’s pretty good at stretching the field from side to side.”
Calhoun, the longtime Air Force
coach, has plenty of background knowledge when it comes to the Cougars, and
he’s spent decades following Leach’s career, crediting the offensive guru for
his work at Oklahoma in 1999 as an offensive coordinator.
“Oh goodness, what a challenge it
is,” Calhoun said. “And it’s been that way ever since really … Mike, he’s just
done a sensational job even going back at Kentucky, even prior to that. He’s
just been incredible. He’s the one that truly launched Oklahoma back into such
a prominent program and the job he did at both Texas Tech and certainly just an
amazing job he’s done at Washington State.
“The production, the quality of
their execution and really the difficulty in trying to assimilate what they do.
It is going to be a gigantic challenge.”
The Cheez-It Bowl will mark the
first meeting between the Pac-12 Cougars (6-6, 3-6) and the Mountain West
Falcons (10-2, 7-1). Air Force carries a seven-game win streak into the
postseason while WSU is coming off a 31-13 loss to Washington in the Apple Cup.
WSU has played in the bowl game once
before, and so has Leach, but the appearances were separated by 14 years. The
Cougars’ only trip to the Cheez-It Bowl, then named the Copper Bowl, came in
1992 when WSU beat Utah 31-28 in Tucson, Arizona.
In Drew Bledsoe’s final game as a
collegian, the WSU quarterback completed 30 of 46 passes for 476 yards – a
school record at the time – and threw two touchdowns to Phillip Bobo, who
finished with seven receptions for 212 yards. Even after rushing out to a 21-0
lead, the Cougars needed a 22-yard field goal from Aaron Price late in the
fourth quarter to seal the program’s third bowl victory.
In 2006, the game had been moved to
Tempe and renamed the Insight Bowl when Leach’s seventh Texas Tech team earned
a berth and staged the biggest comeback in bowl history. The Red Raiders
overcame a 31-point deficit in the third quarter to edge Minnesota 44-41 in
overtime, with current USC offensive coordinator and former WSU assistant
Graham Harrell nabbing Offensive MVP honors. Antonio Huffman, who was Leach’s
longtime Director of Football Operations at WSU, was the defensive MVP and
current Cougars interim co-defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach Darcel
McBath had five tackle.
The Cougars, who appeared in the Sun
Bowl (2015), the Holiday Bowl (2016, 2017) and the Alamo Bowl (2019), are
attempting to finish with a winning record for the fifth consecutive year under
Leach with what would be their third postseason victory under the eighth-year
coach.
The Falcons are playing in their
10th bowl game under Calhoun, who’s been at the helm since 2007, and have a 4-5
postseason record since the 53-year-old took over.
::::::::::::::::::
Leach: The big problem w/ No. 24 Air
Force is stopping them on D
By COUGFANcom
MIKE LEACH DIDN’T sound overly
concerned Sunday with how Air Force's ground attack bleeds the clock dry,
saying it just means his Air Raid will need to make the most of its
possessions. But he did express concern, after Washington State and Air Force
were named to play in the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 27 in Phoenix, about the Cougar
D stopping the No. 3 rushing attack in the land.
“But the biggest thing, and the most
difficult thing of all, is you’ve gotta stop Air Force and you know -- that’s a
real challenge right there,” said Leach.
WSU ranks 78th nationally in rushing
defense, having allowed an average of 170.0 ground yards per game. Air Force averages 292.5 yards per game on
the ground, and has a whopping 686 rushing attempts this season. The Falcons rank No. 7 nationally in time of
possession at 33:43.
Air Force broke into the top 25 last
week for the first time since 2010, The Falcons are currently ranked 24th in
both polls.
“Other than this bowl game, being an
American and everything I always root for Air Force," said Leach. "But the opportunity to play a great
rushing team like them, an option team, I mean, we’re excited about that."
Asked if he’s followed Air Force
since his BYU days as a undergrad, when both schools were in the WAC, Leach
said he’s always followed AFA.
“If I didn’t throw the ball, I’d run
the option -- and why I admire the option is I always felt like our brand of
football really kind of started with the wishbone, because what the wishbone
always did such a good job of is distribution. All the skill positions touch
the ball and it’s pretty good at stretching – they’re great at stretching the
field from side to side. And better at stretching it upfield than they’ve ever
gotten credit for … So I felt like a lot of our space concepts came from the
wishbone,” said Leach.
Troy Calhoun is in his 13th year at
Air Force. He said the Falcons will be well represented in Phoenix.
“We might be the away team but at
the same time, we’ll have a bunch of people there … “Oh goodness, what a
challenge [WSU] is, most certainly. And it’s been that way ever since really,
Mike, he’s just done a sensational job even going back at Kentucky, even prior
to that … The production, the quality of their execution and really the difficulty
in trying to assimilate what they do, it is going to be a gigantic challenge,”
said Calhoun.
“We’re thrilled to go to the
Cheez-It Bowl and couldn’t be more excited. We couldn’t be more excited and
thrilled to play a team the quality of Air Force,” said Leach.
NOTABLE NOTES:
The Falcons rank No. 52nd in total offense at 423.5 ypg, and 22nd
nationally in scoring offense, (34.3).
The Cougars rank 113th in total defense (456.8 ypg) and 94th in scoring
defense, (31.4 ppg).
GAME NOTES:
WHAT: The Cheez-It Bowl
WHEN: Friday, Dec. 27
KICKOFF TIME: 7:15 p.m. Pacific
THE PAYOUT: $1.04 million per team
TV: ESPN
THE SERIES: First meeting Dec. 27
WSU-Air Force in Cheez-It Bowl: Air
Raid vs. Ground Calhoun
From Cougfan.com
TWO POLAR OPPOSITES will meet in the
Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 27 in Phoenix, with the Washington State vs. Air Force
pairing first reported by ESPN's Kyle Bonagura, followed soon after by the
official announcement. If contrasting styles make for great entertainment, this
bowl game should be a thriller. The
Cougs own the No. 1 passing offense in the nation, while Air Force boasts the
No. 3 rushing offense in the land.
It will be the first time the teams
have met, and the first time the Cougars have gone bowling in Arizona since
1992 in the win over Utah when it was called the Copper Bowl.
The Cougars, who finished the
regular season fifth in the Pac-12 North, bring a 6-6 overall and 3-6
conference record into the postseason, while the Falcons are 10-2 overall and
7-1 in Mountain West play.
Air Force passes the ball about as
often as Mike Leach runs it. AFA ranks 124th out of 130 teams in passing
offense (131 ypg) and have attempted only 114 passes all year. Washington State, having attempted 668 passes
this season, ranks 129th in rushing offense (72.5 ypg).
So how does each team’s defense rank
against the opponent’s strength?
WSU ranks 78th in rushing defense.
AFA ranks 83rd in pass efficiency defense.
Offensively, WSU ranks No. 6 in the
land in total offense at 516.8 yards per game, and No. 10 nationally in scoring
offense at 39.2 ppg. Meanwhile, AFA
ranks a stout No. 16 in total defense at 315.8, and No. 19 in scoring defense,
(19.8).
Defensively, the Cougars rank 113th
in total defense (456.8 ypg) and 94th in scoring defense, (31.4 ppg). The Falcons rank No. 52nd in total offense at
423.5 ypg, and 22nd nationally in scoring offense, (34.3).
This season, Air Force beat
Colorado, (30-23 in OT in Week 2). Its
two losses were to Boise State, (30-19), and Navy (34-25).
This will be Washington State's
fifth-straight bowl game. Leach is 2-3 in in bowl games at WSU. Last season, the Cougs beat Iowa State in the
Alamo Bowl. In 2017, they lost to Minnesota in the Holiday. In 2016, they lost
to Michigan State also in the Holiday. In 2015, WSU defeated Miami in the Sun
Bowl, and in 2013, lost to Colorado State in the New Mexico Bowl.
::: WSU Nursing
College at 50: From humble beginnings to 21st century care
They filed
two-by-two into the auditorium of historic downtown Riverside Place in Spokane
on Thursday evening, joining the ranks of a club that’s a half century in the
making.
Some of the
graduates of Washington State University’s College of Nursing were drawn to the
field by parents or grandparents who were nurses themselves. Others, like Riley
Joyce, had a chance encounter with a nurse that sparked a desire to enter the
field.
“I was in the
hospital for almost four weeks,” said Joyce, who at 15 had complications from
surgery and formed a bond with her night-shift nurse during her unexpected
stay. “You’re so young, and you’re so embarrassed. She was just so calm about
everything.”
The nursing
students walking the stage at this fall’s commencement for the school do so on
the 50th anniversary of its first class. Initially a partnership between four
area colleges, the program has grown from a class of 37 to nearly 650
undergraduates statewide and many more graduate students who will push the
profession into the future..
That group now
includes Molly Henderson, another fall 2019 graduate who said WSU’s reputation
would serve her well trying to find employment in an in-demand field.
“They’re really
well known within the hospitals, as well,” Henderson said. “They have a really
good relationships with the nurses and the staff because they’ve been here for
so long.”
WSU nursing
college began in a historic Spokane building with a first-of-its-kind agreement
between multiple schools hoping to prepare nurses for a segment of health care
primed for change.
Opening in the
Carnegie Library on the western edge of downtown Spokane in 1969, the school
moved to its $34.6 million headquarters in Spokane’s University District a
decade ago, with other campuses in the Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Yakima and Walla
Walla.
Much of the job
of training students to become nurses has remained the same, with candidates
finishing their first two years of undergraduate coursework before applying for
a spot at the regional instruction center for their junior and senior years.
“We do
different things in the classroom now, in terms of helping the students learn
better so they can pass the national licensing exam at the end of their four
years,” said Mel Haberman, who was a student in the nursing college’s first
class and now serves as its interim dean.
But the general
process of pairing students with mentors and training in the community hasn’t
changed, he said. What has changed is the technology available to aid
instruction.
Some of the
procedures once taught in clinics and hospitals throughout the Inland Northwest
are now part of a simulation program, using highly sophisticated mannequins in
controlled settings to mimic patient experiences that are rare. The school also
is looking to adapt its curriculum to challenge the traditional role of the
nurse as a responder to health crises, instead of a partner who can prevent
problems before a hospital visit.
The new kids on
the block
Haberman was
sitting in the offices of Director Hilda Roberts and facing deployment to
Vietnam when he first heard about WSU’s bachelor’s program in nursing.
“I went to all
of the recruiters in town, and saw that the best they could do for me was to be
a combat medic, which I didn’t want to be, since they were the ones killed the
most in Vietnam, along with the radiomen,” Haberman said. “I started looking on
campus, and heard there was a nursing program.”
As luck would
have it, he found out in Roberts’ office on top of the university’s athletic
building in Pullman, the deadline for applying for the new program was that
same day. Haberman applied, and now, more than 50 years later, he’s the interim
dean of the college and a distinguished professor in geriatrics, with a career
spent focusing on care for cancer survivors.
Haberman was
one in a first class of 37, which included five men. The enrollment allowed him
to be in the Army Nurse Program, which required him to serve three years in the
branch’s Nurse Corps.
He was
stationed in El Paso, Texas, once he’d completed his coursework at what was
then known as the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education.
It was called
that because WSU had partnered with Eastern Washington State College, Whitworth
College and Fort Wright College to establish the training center. The colleges
were responding to national studies in the mid-1960s indicating the number of
nurses with bachelor’s degrees was well behind what would be necessary for
instruction of new nurses by the end of the decade.
That prompted
the first push for nurses to attain academic degrees beyond the certifications offered at
diploma schools in area hospitals, with members of the American Nursing Association in
1965 calling for a minimum bachelor’s degree for all practicing, professional nurses.
“In the nursing
field changes have been in the wind for many years but gained impetus in 1965
when the American Nurses’ Association issued a position paper recommending
nursing degrees be granted by institutions of higher learning,” Lillian DeYoung,
the college’s coordinator of curriculum, told The Spokesman-Review in 1972.
Whitworth, WSU
and Gonzaga University had previously established bachelor’s degree programs
for nurses, but those programs had been discontinued for various reasons,
including funding concerns. That left just the diploma programs run by area
hospitals.
Haberman said
he remembered performing clinic hours with nurses at Sacred Heart Medical
Center in the early 1970s when it was announced the hospital would no longer
offer a diploma program.
“The majority
of nurses had been graduated from that program,” Haberman said. “So there was
some, I think, indirect frustration. We were sort of like, the new kids on the
block, and it was awkward to be there the night they announced the program was
closing.”
Students still
perform those clinical hours, and end their studies with a practicum in which
they are paired with a professional nurse for a month ahead of graduation.
Chantelle Williams completed her practicum in labor and delivery at Providence
Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, a concentration she’d like to enter after her
graduation this fall.
“We just
basically do their job, while they sit back and watch us and monitor us,” said
Williams, who said she’ll be the first in her family to receive a bachelor’s
degree and the family’s first nurse. The Kent, Washington, native transferred
to WSU after completing her prerequisite courses at San Francisco State
University.
There were so
few students in the first class that all prospective nurses progressed through
the curriculum together. But the program quickly grew, numbering 200 students
by 1973, when Sacred Heart’s diploma program graduated its final class. The
budget grew from just $44,735 in the first year to $1.5 million a decade later.
The school grew
too big for the old library and its gray walls and fireplaces. In 1980, the
Magnuson building opened near Spokane Falls Community College and would house
the training program for the next 29 years.
Haberman taught
for a year at the new building, then left for posts in Western Washington. He
returned in 1999, after obtaining master’s and doctorate degrees from the
University of Washington, and was named interim dean earlier this year.
It’s not a post
he thought he’d occupy all those years ago, sitting in Roberts’ office.
“I sort of
followed the wave of advanced education for nurses,” Haberman said.
That wave has
been breaking in different ways over the past 10 to 15 years, as the college
has moved into a new headquarters on downtown Spokane’s eastern border, while
new technology and growing numbers of students have pushed much of the
instruction back into the classroom.
‘The door is
closed, and they’re in here working as a nurse’
Kevin Stevens’
second-floor laboratory is a corridor of medical devices, hospital beds and
lifelike limbs.
But it’s the
room at the end of the hallway that is the piece de resistance of her lab.
“When she’s on,
you’ll see her blinking,” said Stevens, director of the college’s simulation
program, hitting the “on” switch on a $75,000 high-fidelity mannequin wearing a
silver-toned wig and spectacles. “You’ll see her chest rise and fall, just like
she’s breathing. She’s got heart and lung sounds, just like you and I have
them.”
Jesse Tinsley
Heaven forbid
one of Stevens’ students refer to the lifelike body in the hospital bed before
them as “a dummy.” This highly complicated medical device, attached to a
computer controlling behaviors that can include sweating, bleeding and crying
out in pain, is now a player in the proving ground for upperclassmen hoping to
earn their nursing certification.
Stevens arrived
at WSU by way of Fairchild Air Force Base in 2010, and brought with her a
dedication to teaching nursing through simulation. Students enter an exam room
that mirrors those at any regional hospital and are assigned a series of tasks
they must complete, with Stevens or one of her assistants providing real-time
feedback.
The method
requires buy-in from the students, something Stevens said has grown with time,
and also nationwide research that showed up to half of a nurse’s instruction
can be achieved through simulation without a hit to test scores.
“The door is
closed, and they’re in here working as a nurse,” she said.
The benefits of
simulation, which would have been impossible with the technology available when
the school opened its doors in the 1960s, is that instructors have control over
the types of scenarios students face. They can present nursing candidates with
conditions they would be unlikely to see completing clinic hours in area health
centers and hospitals, Stevens said, or that new health regulations would
prevent them from performing before completing their training.
“It’s focused
learning,” Stevens said. “We know that every student that graduates out of our
program will have had an opportunity to participate in at least two code
scenarios.”
“Code
scenarios” is health care-speak for cardiac arrest.
Cassidy Gurich,
who can now add “B.S.N.” to the end of her name after graduating this fall,
said that simulation exercise prepared her for clinical work when she did see a
patient whose heart stopped.
“I learned the
more serious you took it, as like a real situation, the more you could learn
from it,” said Gurich, whose training helped prepare her to select the proper
medicine for her heart attack patient.
“I would have
been freaking out, if I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
The other
benefit to performing hundreds of hours of simulation on a campus is that the
school doesn’t have to go looking for additional clinical partners, which can
be hard to find in far-flung areas of Eastern Washington and with high demand
from other learning institutions, said Haberman, the interim dean.
“The clinical
placements are saturated, because we have so many nursing schools,” he said.
“And the online classes that we have, out of Washington state, are enrolling
students and all fighting for the same clinical spaces.”
Even so, WSU’s
nursing college has students in more than 600 locations performing on-the-job
training, he said. The number of potential locations for nursing students at
the college totals 2,500, many of them in rural centers that reflect the
ongoing commitment to provide care in underserved areas. That commitment was
made in the early days of the school.
“I hope the new
training will encourage many to go to areas where few health personnel are
available but are badly needed,” DeYoung, the school’s curriculum coordinator,
told The Spokesman-Review in 1972.
Simulation
doesn’t just instruct the technical skills required to become a nurse, Stevens
said. Faculty can speak to a student through a microphone and run through
sophisticated scripts to deal with a number of health issues, both physical and
emotional.
It’s this type
of training that will push the nursing profession forward, said Lisa Day,
associate dean for academic affairs at the college.
What’s old is
new again
For
generations, nursing instruction has been focused on preparing students to work
in hospitals and deal with the fallout of health crises, Day insists.
“These programs
have been sort of stuck in an old way of training by loading up content,” she
said. “Putting tubes in, taking tubes out – that’s what we’ve been focusing
on.”
The University
of California, San Francisco-educated administrator said it’s time to do
something new. Or perhaps even older.
“If you look at
the further back history of nursing, this is sort of where nursing began, is in
public health,” she said. “Really trying to create environments that are
healthy for people to live in.”
Instead of
placing aspiring nurses in assisted care facilities and hospitals, where
they’re dealing with patients who are already experiencing health problems, Day
envisions a future in which nursing students instead visit regional health
centers and health fairs, interacting with healthy people before they’re
at-risk of admission.
“It’s not that
we’re saying there’s no place for RNs in hospital environments, because there
definitely is and there definitely will continue to be,” Day said. “I think
that part of what’s going to shift this focus of health care, is when we shift
the focus of our education to help these new nurses to see the possibilities
they have outside of hospital-based rescue.”
The idea
actually hearkens back to the work of Florence Nightingale, the 19th century
British social reformer credited with professionalizing the industry for women
in her care for soldiers. After the death of a lower-class laborer in a London
workhouse in 1864, Nightingale
wrote a report to Parliament calling for changes to the treatment of illness among
the city’s working poor, including the creation of a taxpayer-funded medical
relief fund for workers.
Day sees the
education of modern nurses following in those footsteps, preparing graduates to
push for public policy changes and take an active role alongside doctors in
developing treatment and prevention plans with patients seeking primary care.
That will require a shift, as well, in public perceptions of what nurses do,
she said.
“We hear, all
the time, that nursing is the most trusted profession,” Day said. “I wonder
what that really means, that we’re the most trusted profession. If you read
most of what’s published in the popular press, it refers to doctors, MDs.”
Some of that
work is already occurring. Taylor Bye, a 2019 graduate of the school, said his
clinical experience included work with the Spokane Fire Department and their
Community Assistance Response, or CARES, Team. That group visits frequent
911 callers who are experiencing chronic medical conditions and have no
insurance to cover traditional care.
“It was a
really good experience,” said Bye. “Those are more about preventing
emergencies. It’s like, you’re trying to limit as many medical emergencies as
you can.”
Day pointed to
other nursing schools, including regional players like Seattle University and
the University of Washington, as already adopting this type of instruction
early in the curriculum. That includes education on things like motivational
interviewing, which allows nurses to work with patients in determining
potential health problems, rather than simply putting on a blood pressure cuff
and writing down vital-sign observations.
This curriculum
reform is intended to continue to push the WSU nursing college’s instruction
into the next 50 years, just as the decision in the 1960s to provide an
in-demand academic degree for the profession spurred the creation of the school
in the first place.
“I don’t recall
any discussion that they thought this program was going to fail,” said
Haberman, reflecting on his early years when the faculty numbered fewer than a
dozen and accreditation wasn’t a certainty. “It wasn’t an experiment.”
Fifty years on,
the legacy created from that initial program allows students like Gurich, who
will also be the first nurse in her family after idolizing one who cared for
her ailing grandfather, to pass that care on to a new generation of patients.
“Honestly, it’s
been such a long journey, and I never thought I’d actually be a nurse,” she
said. “It’s a dream come true.”
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