Vanier Nursing students win first place at the 6th Annual Shanghai International Nursing Skills Contest

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Vanier College is pleased to announce that Dorothea Novielli and Jessica Bogdanski, both third-year Vanier nursing students, won first place at the 6th Annual Shanghai International Nursing Skills Contest (SINSC) held in early November at the Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences. More than 100 competitors from 9 countries took part in over 65 complex and detailed patient scenarios designed to test a variety of nursing skills.

Using actors to play the roles of various patients, the contest aims at specifically assessing the contestants’ ability to evaluate a patient’s condition, practical skills, teamwork, communication, flexibility and other clinical comprehensive nursing abilities in a realistic international hospital environment. The scenarios were typical of the kind nurses encounter on a daily basis and patient conditions included accidents, life-threatening emergencies, chronic disorders, and multiple other symptoms. They also included scenarios involving dealing with patient families and their reactions.

While the students participated in the competition, Nathalie Seguin, the nursing teacher who accompanied them, attended a Nursing symposium where she made a presentation describing nursing in Canada. She was very impressed with how the contest was run since it was all based on simulation scenarios, one of her specialties at Vanier where she is very involved in developing and using simulation in teaching nursing.

This is the first time Canada and Vanier participate in the Shanghai nursing skills competition. “I am extremely proud of our students,” says Natalie Seguin who helped the students prepare for the contest. “They were competing against people from all over the world including the United States, and against university students in Bachelor of Nursing programs. And they came in first! They were perfection! Their teamwork, their communication skills, it all came together. In fact, Canada did well over all since the other two Canadian schools competing, the University of Saskatchewan and Cégep de Sherbrooke, won second and third place respectively.”

The contest was not only a great learning experience, but it also provided an opportunity for the Vanier students to meet and exchange with their counterparts from other countries.

“In talking with nurses from the U.S. or Europe we saw all kinds of differences not only in what duties nurses perform but in their uniforms. Some wear dresses, some hats, some wear scrubs – it’s all very different,” says Jessica.

The Vanier group also visited several local hospitals, from very advanced private facilities with the latest in modern equipment to state-run nursing homes. “Nursing care is very different in China,” said Natalie Seguin. “It appears that our nurses have much more autonomy and more decision-making powers than the nurses we observed in China.”

“It made me so proud to be a Vanier nurse,” said Dorothea. “I realized how advanced our nursing profession is here in Quebec and how much nurses do in our hospitals compared to many other countries.”

Congratulations to Jessica and Dorothea and their teacher coach, Natalie Seguin. And congratulations to the Vanier Nursing Department.