Nursing students get rare, firsthand look at critical care transport

Dozens of nursing students from across the Sacramento region received a rare, up-close look at the fast-paced world of pediatric and neonatal critical care transport at UC Davis Health.

The experience connected 33 future registered nurses with a group of UC Davis Children's Hospital nurses involved in transporting some of the sickest and smallest patients. The event was organized by the Sacramento area chapter of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (SAC AACN) at UC Davis Health

The nonprofit AACN is the world's largest specialty nursing organization.

Nursing students typically receive limited exposure to specialty areas such as critical care transport during clinical rotations. The event was intended to help bridge that gap by bringing students together with nurses who are actively practicing in these highly specialized roles.

The event allowed students to rotate through hands-on learning stations where they explored specialized equipment, patient-care considerations and the unique challenges in caring for and transporting critically ill infants and children. Students also interacted directly with the transport nurses, asked questions and gained insight into careers in these nursing specialties.

The event, held at North Addition, was led by Diana K. Laraway and Chase House, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) transport nurses; Mandeep Chahal, PICU assistant nurse manager and SAC AACN president; and Emily Pels, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) transport nurse.

"One of our goals with Sacramento AACN is to create opportunities for students who are still figuring out where they see themselves in nursing," Chahal said. "There is something completely different about being able to learn directly from nurses who do this work every day."

The time volunteered by the UC Davis team, Chahal added, gave the next generation of nurses an experience they may not otherwise gain in school.