Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies

Clinical Resources

Clinical Experience

The cornerstone of developing the next generation of nurse practitioners requires extensive opportunities for clinical practice. In partnership with Northwell Health, the school leverages the robust network of clinical sites, diverse expert clinicians, and clinical resources in order to guarantee clinical placements for students. Clinical resources include:

  • Simulation lab activities at the Patient Safety Institute
  • Encounters with standardized patients at the Clinical Skills Center
  • Practicing procedural skills at the Bioskills Education Center

The Center for Learning and Innovation (CLI) serves a diverse and growing workforce of more than 79,000 employees. Learners include employees from all levels and areas: administrators, physicians, nurses, technicians, case managers, food service workers, and everyone else. To meet the needs of the various departments throughout the health system, CLI has several programs and services to help advance education.

Learning Initiatives

The Center for Learning and Innovation uses hands-on, interactive programs including simulations, games, reflective debriefing, interactive technology, role-playing, and group activities to guide learners in best practices. 

Patient Safety Institute

Clinical education is vital to reducing medical errors and infections. The Patient Safety Institute features sophisticated, full-scale patient simulators with computer-based interactive technology. The patient simulators mimic diverse medical scenarios found in all areas of health care. The institute is adaptable to all clinical levels and allied health professions, and clinical teams from all over the health system have regularly scheduled sessions. 

Physician Leadership Institute

Building a strong partnership with the physicians in the community is integral to providing exceptional health care. As a major part of that effort, the Physician Leadership Institute supports the professional and personal growth in physicians of the health system.

Bioskills Education Center

Bioskills Education Center, a member of Northwell Health, is a 6,200 square-foot state-of-the-art education facility that brings the latest operative techniques to attending physicians, medical students, residents, nurses, surgical technologists, and others in the medical field.

Find Out More

The Patient Safety Institute (PSI) is the simulation center for Northwell Health and the School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. PSI is accredited by the Society of Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) for excellence in the areas of core standards, teaching/education, assessment, research, and systems integration. This accreditation recognizes that PSI adheres to the rigorous educational standards set by the society, a prestigious international organization. Several PSI team members serve as SSH accreditation site reviewers and have received SSH certification as Certified Healthcare Simulation Educators.

Clinical Skills Center

The Clinical Skills Center is dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare education using a standardized patient program. A standardized patient is an individual who has been carefully trained to portray a patient, family member or other character during an encounter with a learner. Standardized patient roles range from the simple (routine physical exam) to the more complex (disease diagnosis), offering the learner a wide variety of experiences. Learners may interact with the standardized patient in small-group settings or in one-on-one encounters.

Working closely with faculty from the School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, the Clinical Skills Center provides methods of assessing clinical skills in a controlled environment. The Observed Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) is a unique assessment tool, giving learners an opportunity to interview and examine standardized patients in a mock clinical setting. The standardized patient is trained to observe the learner during an encounter and give appropriate post-encounter feedback both on a checklist and face to face. The encounters are recorded and pre- and post-encounter data is collected and reviewed by faculty.

Standardized patients are also an increasingly popular and integral addition to both clinical and nonclinical learner encounters for programs throughout the health system. Their detailed and realistic portrayal of patients, family members, staff members, and administrators provides a unique and practical experience for learners from a variety of disciplines. The Clinical Skills Center provides a safe environment in which learners are able to practice physical examination skills, history-taking skills, and communication skills, and receive immediate feedback from faculty, peers, and the standardized patient.

The Bioskills Education Center is a 6,200 square-foot state-of-the-art education facility that brings the latest operative techniques to Northwell attending physicians, medical students, residents, nurses, surgical technologists, and others in the medical field.

The center offers surgical training, continuing medical education, and research with the most advanced technologies in video and endoscopic surgical equipment. Bioskills Education Center is dedicated to providing an exceptional hands-on experience using cadaveric specimens for regional, national, and international workshops for audiences including physicians, nurses, medical professionals, associations, and students.

At the Bioskills laboratory, all tissue is obtained from agencies licensed by the state of New York as needed for educational events. We strictly adhere to all regulatory requirements and ethical standards for handling tissue.

Northwell Health is committed to delivering the highest quality healthcare possible. Providing exemplary care would not be possible without the backbone of the health system – our nursing staff.

As the largest employer of nurses on Long island and one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States, Northwell is able to offer nurses a range of opportunities to learn, excel and advance.