The Official Nursing Association of the Region of Murcia gave three of the five ‘Extraordinary PhD Prizes’ to nurses who hold a PhD from UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia during an event that took place in the headquarters of said institution. Manuel García Sánchez, president of the Association, gave the awards.

One of the awards was given to the teacher of the Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing of UCAM, Mariana Ferrandini, for her thesis titled ‘Incidentes de múltiples víctimas: mejora de los resultados en entrenamiento a través de recursos de innovación docente’ [Incidents with multiple victims: training outcomes improvement through teaching innovation resources]. In the conclusion, she affirms that “simulated environments allow to train the whole range of actions required to carry out an adequate approach to such incidents, thus improving the results of morbidity and mortality in a safe environment. Furthermore, Virtual Reality gives more possibilities to train” without the need for the scale and the costs of a simulation.

Cristina Cerezo, a student of the Master’s Degree in Urgency, Emergency and Special Care Nursing, received an award as well for her doctoral research titled ‘Aprendizaje de Reanimación Cardiopulmonar en población no sanitaria con recursos de innovación docente’ [Learning Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in non-healthcare population with teaching innovation resources]. The results obtained in this work show the need to include training in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation at a national level from a very young age, starting at the age of 12, and that it should be included in the school curriculum. 

Lastly, Judit Sánchez, holder of a PhD from UCAM and student of the Master’s Degree in Urgency, Emergency and Special Care Nursing, received her award for the study titled ‘Impacto de las competencias socio-emocionales de los alumnos del Grado en Enfermería en prácticas clínicas reales y simuladas’ [Impact of socio-emotional skills on the performance of real or simulated clinical nursing practices], which concludes that these competences have a positive effect on the performance of nursing students in clinical practices carried out it simulated and real environments.