{"id":1404,"date":"2015-12-08T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T04:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/extra\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:44:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:44:26","slug":"wsu-nursing-grad-you-always-remember-your-first-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/student-features\/wsu-nursing-grad-you-always-remember-your-first-code\/","title":{"rendered":"WSU nursing grad: ‘You always remember your first code’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ashley<\/a><\/p>\n

(This story appears in the latest edition of the <\/i>WSU Spokane Magazine<\/i><\/span><\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

By Alli Benjamin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ashley Ormsby, RN, BSN, \u2019<\/b><\/span>1<\/b><\/span>3, <\/b>(pictured above)<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>a Spokane native, was eager to begin her first job at Harborview Medical Center,\u00a0a level one trauma facility serving Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Wyoming. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was prepared to face some difficult traumas and patients in the operating room; poly traumas, brain bleeds, full body burns,\u201d she said.\u00a0 <\/span>After completing a six-month nursing residency, she was ready to join her colleagues on the floor. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was a Friday evening and Ormsby was finishing up her final shift for the week. An elderly male patient she was caring for was brought in for a wound VAC (vacuum-assisted closure). This routine surgical procedure paled in context to his injuries he had sustained: an orthopedic trauma, a collapsed lung, and a crushed pelvis. Though he was a stable patient, he had issues with his blood coagulating days earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n

The procedure was uneventful and physicians began signing off for the night. Ormsby finished her shift as the patient began quickly regaining consciousness from anesthesia. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he woke, he was active and then became increasingly distressed. He thrashed violently in his bed and then became completely unresponsive. I checked for a pulse and found none. I immediately called a code and began chest compressions,\u201d Ormsby recalled. <\/span><\/p>\n

The patient was experiencing a pulmonary embolism (PE), and she was the first to recognize it. \u201cIt was the perfect storm. He had stagnant blood in his lower body for more than 14 hours.\u00a0 <\/span>He also lacked sequential compression devices, which help prevent blood clotting and deep vein thrombosis. Additional information-\u2014including his history, demographics, plus how he was responding when waking\u2014all pointed toward a PE.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ormsby became the lead in the situation, identifying roles for colleagues who were still on shift. \u201cIn those instances when you are having a crisis, you have to identify someone to give orders, otherwise it\u2019s complete chaos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And in those moments she was giving orders, she remembered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had an identical simulation at WSU where the patient had a PE. I was very surprised by my ability to remain calm and level-headed, but I could in part because I had done it before,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

For nearly 30 minutes, Ormsby and another nurse rotated performing active CPR, giving the patient chest compressions. The attending physicians and anesthesiologists returned and began managing the code. After dozens of rounds rotating compressions, the patient finally had a pulse. He was going to live, fighting until he could breathe on his own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sim<\/a><\/p>\n

High school students get to know Sim Man, a simulation that WSU nursing students use during their studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Debriefing<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In the hours that followed, Ormsby connected with her fellow nurse colleagues who recognized her for her quick thinking. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were blown away; I went from new nurse to nurse running the code,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they asked me how I knew what was happening, I shared my experience with the similar simulation. I thought during my first code I would be really uncomfortable. But in that instance I had never been more calm and collected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ormsby added that fellow nursing students who had participated in the 50 percent simulation group agreed the simulations helped in complex, high stress situations. They had already gone through the experience and it allowed them to remain calm. \u201cWe were trained for it,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Stevens<\/strong>, director of the Clinical Performance in Simulation Lab at the WSU <\/a><\/span>College of Nursing<\/a>, said that Ormsby\u2019s experience indicates why simulation is an exceptional teaching and learning model. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat students experience in the sim lab is very real, yet it allows them to practice complex cases in a safe environment, with instructors and peers providing feedback along the way,\u201d Stevens said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hearing from Ormsby, who reached out to Kevin following the incident, was personally and professionally validating.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that simulation is an effective teaching and learning tool,\u201d Stevens said. We are just beginning to collect data that captures the effectiveness of it in nursing education and how well that knowledge transfers to the real world clinical setting. A case like Ormsby\u2019s is just one example illustrating simulation as a valuable learning tool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Study:<\/h3>\n

Between <\/span>2<\/span>0<\/span>1<\/span>1 and <\/span>2<\/span>0<\/span>1<\/span>3, WSU was one of <\/span>1<\/span>0 nursing schools to participate in the National Simulation Study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing<\/a> (NCSBN) to investigate the effectiveness of substituting clinical hours\u00a0 <\/span>with simulated patient scenarios. Ashley Ormsby, featured in this story, participated in the group that substituted 50 percent of her six clinical\u00a0 <\/span>courses with simulation\u2014 the most of any group. The study is extremely relevant as nursing educators face challenges with placing student nurses at clinical sites.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This story appears in the latest edition of the WSU Spokane Magazine) By Alli Benjamin Ashley Ormsby, RN, BSN, \u201913, (pictured above)\u00a0 a Spokane native, was eager to begin her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":1406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[989],"tags":[471,447,1090],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4254,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/4254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}