Being a nurse has its share of wonderful experiences. Saving a life, creating a connection with a patient, and making a difference are quick to put a smile on anyone’s face. But nursing has its share of difficult experiences, too. What happens when a child or an infant you are caring for dies? What then? What do you say? Where do turn? Julie Lindsay, MSN, RN, is helping to answer those difficult questions for nursing students at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston with her “Pediatric Critical Care – End of Life Lecture.”

“I don’t want students to have to learn through the school of hard knocks,” says Lindsay, who has been a clinical instructor at the school for just a year. “I want to help prepare them.”

That desire is part of what fueled Lindsay’s idea. Her past experiences as a nurse also played a role. “I thought about when I was 20 and I was a new nurse in St. Louis,” she says. “I had my first pediatric death . . . no one told me I was going to miss this person I just met two hours ago.”

So last spring, Lindsay brought the idea to her clinical group. The 10 students quickly agreed to be part of a realistic simulation that featured the death of an infant. Lindsay wanted to make sure it was as true to life as possible: “We had a loosely scripted scenario,” she says. “I didn’t want them to read or memorize.”

The simulation-which included the use of a SimBaby-made its debut in front of 46 students, a few faculty members, and a video camera last fall. Lindsay says she had some nerves as the room fell quiet during the production. The only sounds were the whirr of the machines, the movements of the actors trying to resuscitate the infant, and solemn conversations between parents and a chaplain onstage. Tears filled the eyes of many audience members. Then, out came the questions.

“The questions they had were just incredible,” Lindsay says of the audience members. “They were just awesome.”

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