Dr. Scott Erdley (far right) is the Director of Simulation and Skills Labs for our College of Nursing.

With our well-established and accredited nursing program, our nursing faculty are qualified to educate nursing students who, upon completion of our program, are prepared to lead, manage, and deliver outstanding professional comprehensive nursing care in any healthcare setting. Our nursing program combines classroom lectures with practice-oriented simulations and labs to provide our nursing students with a well-rounded, balanced education that prepares them for a career in nursing.

Dr. Scott Erdley, one of our faculty members in the College of Nursing, offers years of experience in the nursing field, including a teaching assistantship at University at Buffalo’s School of Nursing, followed by a graduate assistantship. He also had stints as an associate professor at University at Buffalo, St. John Fisher College, and University of Nevada Reno. In 2007, Dr. Erdley joined us at Niagara as an adjunct professor for nursing, and came aboard as a full time faculty fellow in July of 2017. Dr. Erdley now resides as the Director of Simulation and Skills Labs here on Monteagle Ridge.

Our nursing simulation lab here at Niagara University provides clinical simulation for our nursing students, starting with their first course in medical/surgical nursing during their first semester of their junior year. Nursing students also partake in simulations as a component of their senior seminar course.

Dr. Erdley is responsible for providing these simulation experiences to our nursing students, developing and integrating these simulations into our nursing program, and coordinating instruction and resources for our simulation and skills labs.

“The focus of these patient scenarios is thinking,” said Dr. Erdley. “How does a nurse think, what clues the patient and patient information provide to the nurse, and so forth.”

The skills labs provide students opportunities to learn and practice their nursing skills, ranging from personal care for patients - including bathing, bed making, and personal hygiene, among others - to medication administration, IV medication administration, starting IV access lines, and insertion of indwelling urinary catheters.

Our nursing simulation labs are well-equipped with mannequins for our nursing students to practice on and develop their skills. Mannequins include:

  • SimMan Essential Bleeding, which incorporates an internal bleeding system, and allows students to build on core skills in airway, breathing, cardiac, and circulation management.

  • SimMom, which covers all stages of labor, and allows students to develop skills to recognize and respond to potential high-risk births and postpartum complications.

  • SimBaby, which allows students to practice critical patient assessment and treatment of babies, ranging from newborn to 30 days old.

  • SimJunior, which is a pediatric mannequin that can cover age ranges of 5 to 12, simulates conditions from a healthy, talking child, to an unresponsive child in critical condition.

Our comprehensive nursing program provides our students with the opportunity to receive hands-on experience in the classroom, and the knowledge and guidance to connect our students with volunteer opportunities, internship programs, and more. Upon completion of our nursing program, our nursing students are able to enter the nursing field with confidence in their abilities and knowledge within the field.