Faculty Profile of the Month: March 2009

Stimulating simulation: Learning lab director teaches students to be clinicians

By Ashley Wiggin

As the patient complains of chest pain and pressure, nursing students check his vital signs. The monitor beeps, tracking heart rate and blood pressure. In another bed, students insert an IV into the arm of a patient battling infection. This isn’t the ER. It’s the school’s learning lab, also known as the Center for Excellence in Nursing Education, where director Juvann Wolff stands behind the controls of simulated patients.

While her daily routine includes juggling lab schedules, running simulated patient scenarios and refreshing clinical skills for students and faculty, Juvann’s role is evolving alongside changing technology. Her favorite part is the opportunity she has to mentor students. “I am very passionate about the role in nursing that I’ve had for more than 20 years, and I love being able to help prepare these students to go out and become quality providers for our community.”

After moving to Seattle from Northern California to get her BSN at Seattle University, Juvann spent time as an ICU nurse in the United States Air Force. After three years of active duty, she joined the Air Force reserves (and later the Naval reserves), working at the Seattle VA hospital and Harborview Medical Center.

In 1982, she returned to the UW to become a licensed family nurse practitioner. She then worked as a primary care provider at King County Health Department, Providence Healthcare, and was appointed medical director of one of the clinics where she practiced.

Juvann joined the School of Nursing as a lecturer in 2004 and has been directing the learning lab for the past year and a half. “I had always loved teaching, and the opportunity came up for me to join the faculty, so I took it,” Juvann said. “Every day is different -- that’s what makes it so exciting.”

While her passion has long been in clinical practice, Juvann appreciates the opportunities that teaching and working with students afford her. “The relationship between being a practitioner and a teacher is incredible. I know the real world, and I’ve experienced these scenarios in real life, so I know how to help students understand them,” she said. “I feel that I have an important role in educating our future.”

In the past year, the learning lab has undergone a floor-to-ceiling transformation and is now filled with state-of-the-art technology in patient care and education. About 300 students per year get hands-on experience in the school’s learning lab. “Technology has become incredibly important for education and patient care,” she said. “But we still need to teach students how to interact with their patients.”

Juvann loves to garden, calling herself “Weeds R Us.” She is retired as a Navy captain from the military after 30 years of service and has two sons. She lives in Lake Forest Park with her younger son, who attends Central Washington University.

For more information about the learning lab, please visit:

http://www.son.washington.edu/students/llab/all_learninglab.asp