Simulation labs provide hands-on experience for TC nursing students
They talk, move, blink and moan, doing their best to inform their caregivers exactly what’s going on with their bodies. While they are quite lifelike, they aren’t human.
They live in the sim lab at Texarkana College—patient simulators, a form of cuttingtechnology used in nursing programs around the world to give students hands-on patient experience.
The lab was built and equipped through a $304,006 Jobs and Education for Texans grant from Texas Workforce Commission.
Ruth Hughs, TWC commissioner representing employers, attended the open house for the lab in August 2017. She said the “Texas miracle” of workforce success involves a simple formula.
“We focus on low taxes, reasonable regulations for starting and growing a business,” she said. “One thing that we’re just proud of is we really focus in on our quality talent pipeline, so employers do have that skilled workforce they need and that individual will have an opportunity to pursue a career in the best state in the country. This kind of training equipment is going to further that mission and really help people get trained in the highest technology. In our ever-changing world, it’s helpful to have these kinds of resources where we can make sure they have the best equipment.”
The JET grants provide equipment for emerging technologies or high-demand occupations, such as nursing. Although TC already had two simulators, Courtney Shoalmire, dean of health sciences, said they were beginning to wear out.
The simulators have many functions, some of which allow students to hear heart, lung and bowel sounds. Another is a simulator of an older man with heart problems, plus there are two simulators of young children.
The rock star in the lab is Sim Mom, a simulator which gives birth, complete with amniotic fluid, a placenta and umbilical cord attached to a baby simulator. It cost more than $60,000 Shoalmire said, adding that it will be a huge benefit to the nursing students.
“With the pregnancy simulator, we can program her to have an easy, no-problem childbirth scenario or one with complications to the delivery,” she said. “Most students don’t have the opportunity to see a live birth. We can do it in the sim lab, and they’ll know what to expect.”
Instructors program the simulators with specific issues, and the students work to figure those out. Their actions will also be recorded with a $27,000 audio/visual system purchased through the grant.
“We can record simulation scenarios as students go through the motions,” Shoalmire said. “Then in debriefing, we replay those videos and let the students and instructor talk about where they went wrong, the things they did right and where they could have improved the situation. That is very important that we’re able to watch it more than once, not just when they’re going through the motions.”