Wallcur
State-of-the-art Healthcare Training via Simulations

Nurses are the last step in the medication administration process and are an important link in ensuring patient safety. However, as clinical hours become increasingly difficult to acquire, nurse students are getting less real-life experience of administering medication to patients at clinical facilities. Therefore, young future nurses handling drugs and trying to use techniques like needle injection for the first time are a liability to safety. A National Council of State Boards report showed that students could replace up to 50 percent of their clinical hours with simulation and perform no worse on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Wallcur, a San Diego, CA-based company improves students’ medication administration skills by creating a realistic clinical environment to familiarize students of healthcare with all aspects of the medication administration process. Founded by a woman nurse educator in 1972, Wallcur provides healthcare simulation ideas and products that stimulate clinical learning in a safe non-clinical environment in order to help develop the most competent, confident, and ready practitioners for today's healthcare system.

The company provides educational training and simulation in nursing, pharmacy, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), the medical corps, and other allied health programs throughout the world. Wallcur’s Practi-Meds product line provides practice medication for unit dosages, reconstitution for Intravenous (IV)’s, ampule and vial handling, injection techniques, and more. The line’s true-to-life realistic design creates a safe and authentic practice that is easily integrated into any new or existing healthcare curriculum.

Wallcur Practi-Meds can integrate with electronic charting system like EHR Tutor to create a realistic simulation environment. EHR Tutor’s prebuilt patients can be edited for simulating patient scenarios from scratch, allowing students to assess, view and review the patient’s condition and orders beforehand.

The main focus at Wallcur has always been to have the most realistic training products, while always maintaining the highest standards of safety

This helps save educators’ time and money, while allowing students to get physically familiarized with performing each step of the medication administration process, including scanning and recording medication.

Also, the educators can share information about the delivery system, the drug and the dosage with Wallcur and the company creates the customized product after research. “Wallcur prides itself on not only having the most realistic simulated medications but also being able to customize them for our customers,” says Wendy LaGrange, Director of Sales & Business Development for Wallcur. The company is working diligently to make adjustments according to the variances seen in the real world according to medication prices, expiration date, National Drug Code (NDC) number and dosages.

Working closely with educators, the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) and advisory boards, Wallcur ensures that their products look realistic, but still have the proper warnings to differentiate them from real medicines. Critical thinking lessons help students to identify errors in medical records or doctor’s orders. For instance, Heparin (an anti-coagulant) is one of the most commonly miscalculated drugs. Wallcur’s Practi Heparin Vials and Teaching Module can be used to teach students a variety of Heparin dosage calculations, measurement, and administration skills–safely.

According to Wendy, “The main focus at Wallcur has always been to have the most realistic training products, while always maintaining the highest standards of safety.” With Wallcur’s products being sold globally, the company is using warning labels on its products that can be deciphered by non-English speakers as well, to ensure patient safety, irrespective of language.

Looking towards the future, Wallcur is aiming to make its labeling more accurate and safe. Without trying to be siloed or exclusive, the company is working towards being incorporated into different systems through collaboration with other providers and further standardize its simulations.