Lessons Learned from Skills Laboratory Management to Support Experiential Learning: Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Khon Kaen

Abstract

Experiential learning is a crucial mechanism in producing nursing graduates with competencies in clinical skills, critical thinking, and patient safety. The skills laboratory serves as essential infrastructure that must be adequately prepared, standardized, and supported by an auditable management system. This lesson-learned academic article aims to synthesize a laboratory management system that supports experiential learning for students across all programs at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Khon Kaen. The synthesis emphasizes a systems-based approach encompassing structural governance, operational processes, and monitoring and evaluation, including equipment lending and return services that support both internal and external units in accordance with official administrative requests.

The lesson-learned framework integrates the Structure–Process–Outcome model with the quality improvement cycle (PDCA/PDSA) to explain the interrelationships among responsible roles, documentation and information systems, safety measures, management of equipment and consumables, scheduling and pre-instruction readiness, skills training support, and service performance evaluation. The findings identify the “minimum essential system components” required to ensure continuous readiness of skills laboratories for experiential learning. These include a clearly defined governance structure, comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs) covering room preparation, equipment lending and return, maintenance, and safety, an evidence-based documentation and indicator dashboard, and a post-semester review mechanism to drive continuous improvement. The article offers practical recommendations for nursing education institutions to develop laboratory management systems aligned with quality assurance and accreditation standards.