Students at Meridian Technology Center will soon use full-body mannequin robots that breathe, talk, blink and respond physiologically like a real person to enhance their learning experience.
The mannequins are part of a clinical simulation center that Meridian plans to build on its campus for its nursing students and other community medical workers.
“What we hope to do is turn out a much better individual; a much better graduate ready for the workforce because of the opportunities that they will have in working with the simulated mannequins,” said Rena Hines, Meridian Technology Center’s short-term courses director.
The center would enable not only Meridian’s students to learn in a more real-life environment but also medical workers in Oklahoma who want to refresh their skills or receive advanced training.
Hines said they hope to begin construction this summer with the building process lasting about 18 months.
With clinical simulation training, the instructor programs the mannequin with different vital signs, depending on what skills the instructor wants the student to learn. Then, the students act accordingly to what the mannequin’s scenario and symptoms are, according to the Association of Professors of Medicine.
For example, if the instructor programs the mannequin’s heart to stop, the mannequin’s blood pressure won’t show up on the adjacent computer unless the student puts the blood pressure cuff on the mannequin. The student then knows to check the blood pressure and has an idea of a scenario in which a patient’s heart stops.
“The instructors have the ability to observe [the scene] via camera and everything will be videotaped,” Hines said. “So, you can sit down with the student and say, ‘Watch this. See what you’ve done here? Let’s do it this way.’”
Students can try different strategies to solve problems and practice skills. They also can rehearse the management of serious but infrequent events under controlled predictable times and places, according to the Association of Professors of Medicine.
With a nursing and physician shortage, the center will encourage people to enter the medical field, said Calvin Anthony, a Stillwater Medical Center board member.
Anthony also said the center will help medical trainees feel more confident when they enter the workforce.
“It does allow them, in their training, to be basically right in the same surroundings that they would be working in,” Anthony said.
Although many are excited about the positive effects the center will have, the building plans are in the conceptual stages, said Beth Buchanan, Meridian’s chief financial officer.
The architect hasn’t confirmed whether Meridian’s endeavor is over budget but construction won’t be a financial burden, said Buchanan, Stillwater Medical Center’s board secretary.
“We will build it out of our building fund,” Buchanan said. “We let it accumulate so that those funds are available when we start the project. We just kind of made up a wish list of what we’d like to have.”
Northern Oklahoma College’s nursing program and Stillwater Medical Center also could use the simulation center.
Hines said NOC’s nursing program is expected to grow, so students and instructors will need more learning space.
Stillwater Medical Center’s new employees also could benefit from receiving the simulation training.
Hines said they would be able to rent classroom space and share simulation lab time with other entities using the building, such as Stillwater Medical Center.
David Pitts, a Stillwater Medical Center board member, said the center also could help Stillwater Medical Center with continuing education of its nursing staff.
“I think it’s just another tool to attract nurses and specialists who could use the facility and stay on the learning curve,” Pitts said. “So it’s not just for nursing students.”
Although simulation is not universally practical today, all procedural skills should eventually be simulated and practiced up to a basic level of competency before they are attempted on patients, according to the Association of Professors of Medicine.
Hines said she thinks the center will improve the confidence level of students.
“It doesn’t take the place of student-patient contact when it comes to them completing the clinical rotation,” Hines said. “But it just adds a higher standard of training.”
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