What started as a routine clinical rotation ended up being anything but that for a handful of Galen College of Nursing Richmond students and their clinical instructor.

Galen students and a faculty member were the first to respond to a person in distress in a  waiting room at a Richmond, VA hospital, providing aid until the ICU nurses arrived moments later to care for the person.

Despite the chaos of the situation around them, the Galen students displayed tremendous poise, teamwork, and closed-loop communication to care for the person and ensure they were stable until the registered nurses arrived.

“I’m really proud of my students who were actively involved,” Galen Clinical Instructor Angie Howell, DM, DNP, RN, MPH, NE-BC, said. “More than anything, when you’re not used to that, your heart rate goes up, your ability to comprehend and focus goes down, and those students listened to everything I said. Beautiful, closed loop communication, they repeated everything back to me. They hadn’t learned any of this yet, but when I told them to back up and let the nurses in, all of them stepped up and backed up. That’s a hard thing to do even for seasoned teams, that communication.

“I am confident that the student’s quick action really saved this patient.”

Galen student Shara Farrer just happened to be walking by a waiting room at Johnston-Willis when she was alerted that someone appeared to be in distress.

Without a moment’s thought, Farrer dropped what she had been doing and ran over to the person to begin care. Then, Farrer did something that some beginner nurses forget to do. She stayed with the person and called for help.

“Nursing 101, you never leave the patient in an emergency,” Howell said. “She did what she was supposed to do and stayed.”

For Farrer, this was a lesson she had learned early on in her nursing education at Galen.

“My first instructor taught me the importance of being there and being present, and making sure you’re providing safe care for your patient,” she said. “And that just stuck with me throughout the rest of the program. Dr. Howell, she really ingrained in us from day one, even though that was our second clinical rotation together, to be there and be present and be alert. Because when you’re working on that floor that’s connected to the ICU, anything can happen.”

Howell and student John Willis initially responded to Farrer’s call for help, and then students Joe Durham and Francois Atra joined, with others jumping in as they arrived. The group worked together to ensure the person was safe and on their side, and Farrer left momentarily to alert the floor nurses and bring over a vital sign machine and a response cart. Another Galen student also grabbed an oxygen tank to have available just in case.

“Honestly, in those moments, time really flew,” Farrer said. “It was just like back-to-back-to-back, but not a chaotic time flying by. Even though what was happening was chaotic, it didn’t seem like that. People just fell into place.”

Moments later, the hospital staff arrived and took over the scene. The Galen students stepped away from the patient, and the nurses were able to stabilize the person and head down to the emergency room for acute care.

A week later, in the team huddle before the start of the next clinical rotation, the Galen group was commended by a hospital leader, Katie Swineford, from HCA Healthcare.

“As a whole, all of us definitely stepped up” Farrer said. “There was nothing personal, I may have been the first one there, but each student was a vital part. All of us really stepped up quickly. There was no question about it. It was very much a team effort.”