Buffalo Next: Increased nursing simulation 'big selling point' for Bryant & Stratton College

Within our simulation labs, we are equipping nursing students with new technologies to enhance the classroom experience and mimic real-world scenarios – allowing them to think critically on their toes.

At our Orchard Park campus, Meghan Snyder recently spoke with The Buffalo News about how B&SC’s new simulation lab—featuring highly realistic mannequins—is preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals for the demands of the field.

By Mike Petro
April 30, 2025

State legislation allows for more college clinical training using real-life technology

Bryant & Stratton’s effort to prepare and retain future nurses while keeping up with technology has spurred the college to institute more simulation work that incorporates the use of real-life manikins.

After years of preparation, the college is ready to welcome its latest cohort of nursing students who will be able to use the manikins to reenact medical scenarios and mirror hands-on, real-world clinical settings.

Meghan Snyder, nursing program coordinator at Bryant & Stratton’s Orchard Park campus, said the college wants to provide nursing students with the latest technology to help them critically think on their toes.

It comes as New York has enacted legislation to allow up to one-third of required clinical hours for nursing students to be done in a simulation lab – the result of post-Covid efforts to address the state’s nursing shortage by providing more training options.

“It’s a big selling point for the program,” Snyder said. “We all know in this day and age, the better the technology, the more people there are who want it.”

The state of nursing took a hit during the pandemic but there’s interest being sparked once again in the profession, Snyder said. Bryant & Stratton admits about 40 students to its nursing program every tri-semester, and it runs eight different classes for every cohort.

“We’re trying to get back to the meat and potatoes of what the field is all about – that caring aspect of it,” Snyder said. “We’re giving them that strong initial start so they can be successful in their career.”

In the college’s new simulation labs, technology like manikins will soon be incorporated. These manikins simulate human responses, and professors can speak through the manikins and express themselves as a patient would.

It allows for reenacting medical scenarios like a heart attack, taking blood and inserting a catheter, while practicing an assortment of medical procedures. The manikins have interchangeable parts that can be replaced.

Bryant & Stratton began purchasing the manikins in 2022 and since has been practicing with them and making adjustments to that the students can start using them this year. Snyder said they also have been putting together plans for the state about how much and when they will use them for simulations.

“It creates multiple teaching opportunities,” Snyder said. “It’s such an invaluable tool.”

With the new state legislation – which has been pushed by advocates for years, it allows students to experience more emergency situations planned through simulation, instead of being pushed aside during some real-life medical scenarios.