New elective course, Advanced Lifesaving Technologies, to be offered in spring 2025

New elective course, Advanced Lifesaving Technologies, to be offered in spring 2025

This spring semester, NSG 470: Advanced Lifesaving Technologies, will be offered to WVU School of Nursing senior nursing students. The course is an introduction to various machines used in the ICU and will be led by Dr. Patricia “Joy” Maramba.

This course requires no prerequisites, but students must be of senior standing. The course will introduce students to advanced lifesaving technologies and the roles and responsibilities of ICU teams.

The course is asynchronous but requires three on-campus days, which will feature simulations or clinical time in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital. Maramba said this could provide an opportunity for nursing students on different campuses to see the academic teaching center.

“They will be introduced to advanced life-saving technologies including the indication for, mechanics of, and correlating body systems of disease processes,” Maramba said.

NSG 470 was created in partnership with a team from WVU Medicine’s Heart and Vascular Institute. The HVI team: Director of Cardiac Nursing Services, the Manager and Clinical Preceptors of the CVICU and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO ) team members are part of the curation.

Maramba said three of the HVI team members are alums from the WVU School of Nursing program and former students of hers.

“This is a great 'full circle’ moment when we get to collaborate now as colleagues,” Maramba said She said they are excited for the course and hoping to generate interest in critical care nursing.

The course was intended to focus on ECMO; however, they realized students do not have the necessary background, so they shifted direction to create a course to supplement the existing critical care class. NSG 470 was therefore created to focus on neuro, respiratory, cardiac, and renal systems -- the systems that often fail and require medical devices in order to survive.

Students must be seniors to participate in the course, as they have more clinical background and have the experience needed from their critical care courses. The elective course also offers an opportunity for students to enroll for additional credit hours, which are sometimes needed to maintain full-time status for financial aid. Please note: Students do not need to be in the critical care course when they enroll for NSG 470.

“I think it's going to be a fun course,” Maramba said. “So many students have expressed interest in pursuing careers in the ICU, but we have such limited time in the clinical setting. This is a great way to sneak in additional exposure to critical care.”

Photo Captions: Olivia Phelan, a WVU School of Nursing student, is currently enrolled in her clinical immersion (NSG 412 Leadership) experience in cardiovascular ICU. 

-WVU-

bc/10/7/2024

MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu