Greenville Tech gives health-care students chance to get ‘real’

Fifteen years ago this June, Greenville Technical College (GTC) created the Simulation Technologies and Training (STAT) Center, where students across all health programs can master skills in a risk-free environment, review the skills they demonstrated with instructors, and bridge the gap between classroom instruction and the real world.

The center boasts 15 simulators and nine lifelike environments, including a city street where a car accident has occurred, a scene inside a home, an emergency room, a standard hospital operating room, and a specialty room for intensive care and pediatric intensive care, to name a few. Here, soon-to-be healthcare professionals – paramedics, radiology technicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and more -- can make the most common and preventable mistakes, receive instructor input, and try again.

In the time since the center was created, many things have changed. One is volume. On June 8, 2009, the center recorded its first simulation, hosting 34 students. During that initial year, 2,576 simulations were performed. This year, 10,044 simulations have been conducted in the center. Since it opened, a total of 133,782 simulations have been conducted, benefitting all nine allied health and nursing programs.

Each of those programs conducts simulations differently, depending upon course objectives. The EMT/Paramedic program uses the center to create realistic ‘in-the-field’ scenarios. Students may enter the building to find a manikin in the hallway or down the stairs. They must navigate decisions about how to best access the patient, when to move the patient, and which treatments are most appropriate.

Physical Therapy Assistant and Occupational Therapy Assistant students assess simulated patients with various medical equipment, such as chest tubes, to facilitate learning about the equipment prior to real patient encounters. Nursing and EMS students deliver babies using a simulator that actually “gives birth.” Dental students check vitals, practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and learn how to pass off a patient in cardiac arrest to EMTs. Radiology students practice manipulating a Carm as well as other medical scenarios. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

As the center has become an integral part of allied health and nursing education at the college, instructors have become comfortable with the technology and the student experience it allows. They understand that the patient should be cared for by the students, and they intentionally step away to afford students a true simulation. The scenario is recorded and reviewed along with students so that they understand what went well and what could be improved.

Simulators have become increasingly sophisticated, ranging in price from $7,000 to $125,000. Greenville Technical College, with the help of donors including Dr. Barbara Lassiter, for whom the center was named in 2020, is committed to equipment upgrades that keep these valuable tools for learning in line with the needs of the departments utilizing them.

For example, in addition to the 15 manikins, the STAT Center utilizes augmented and virtual reality. The augmented reality works in time with the Lucina birthing manikin to show learners what is going on inside Lucina while she is in labor. It can demonstrate a natural birth or several complicated births. It also has various medical scenarios such as a patient who is having a heart attack and what the heart looks like in the process.

The virtual reality program allows students to interact with a patient on a computer in 2D or 3D with the use of an Oculus. The student can perform the assessment in class or at home, individually or in a group, as the virtual world is projected onto a larger screen for others to see. Students are graded on the activity so they can discover the things they completed well and those areas that still need improvement.

Diversity is a priority at Greenville Technical College; across all campuses and programs, it is incorporated into teaching and learning. At the STAT Center, students encounter human patient simulators of various weights, different skin and hair colors, and a range of ages. Some of the simulators have tattoos and piercings just as patients do in the real world. Students interact with this diverse group of simulated patients, learning to be respectful of all as they provide treatment.

Reducing medical errors is as important today as it was when the center opened. Making simulation a part of the learning experience continues to help students master patient care skills before they leave the college campus, benefitting those they treat throughout their careers.

As our nation celebrates National Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 1016, the role of simulation in health-care education continues to be critical in achieving better outcomes.

Joice Lynn is a professor and human patient simulation specialist at Greenville Technical College.