MOUNTAIN HOME -- Starting this fall, there'll be several mannequins that can blink, have a heart attack and deliver babies in Gotaas Hall at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home.
Located on the second floor of the Gotaas Hall, students will learn to take care of children with respiratory illnesses. While doing procedures -- such as providing wound care -- students treat the mannequin like real patients. The idea of bringing the simulation lab, which simulates real scenarios of a hospital, was to enhance hands-on learning.
Dean of the School of Health Sciences Julia Gist said all nursing students -- licensed practical nurse and registered nurse -- will be exposed to the lab, and hopefully the paramedics, nursing assistants and emergency medical technician students.
Once finished, Gist said the lab will consist of four simulation rooms, two observation rooms, two debriefing rooms where students review what they learn, an emergency room and an intensive care unit.
The Baxter Bulletin reports that part of the curriculum requires students to spend time in the hospital and nursing home. The required hours vary per program. Registered nurse students do about 150 clinical hours a semester. Their training can be done through the lab now, instead of the hospital.
Students could spend up to half of their time in the simulation lab, Gist said.
"That's not our plan right now. We'll probably be doing about 25 to 30 percent of our clinical in the simulation lab."
The lab gives students the experience they need upon graduation, Gist said. When going to a hospital, students only get the experience that's there that day.
With the simulation lab, however, instructors will be able to plan a woman going through labor, a child having asthma, an emergency or someone having a congestive heart failure.
The lab won't replace clinical time completely, but it is a substitution of the hospital.
The school needs to accomplish "certain goals and objectives" in the classroom, and sometimes students do not get the right experience in the hospital, Gist said.
For instance, students need a certain pediatric experience, and when it comes to Baxter Regional Medical Center, there are very few children who are in the hospital. To get the pediatric experience, ASUMH students would visit pediatric offices.
In a simulation lab, the learning process is more controlled.
When an instructor takes a group of eight students to a unit, all of them are learning. Yet, they can be learning multiple things at the same time. Whereas in a lab, the instructor knows what they are all learning. The lab doesn't only provide hands-on learning. It also helps instructors to measure what the students have learned, such as improvements that need to be made.
School officials have had the idea about two-years-and-a-half. Construction was done by the school's maintenance department, with glass installed by the Mountain Home Glass, Inc.
It moved pretty quickly, Gist said.
ASUMH Chancellor Robin Myers said the project cost roughly $300,000, with remodeling and equipment included. It's about 2,800 square feet.
"It's going to be a great benefit to our students and to our staff," Myers said.
According to a release, the project was paid through proceeds from the Gotaas Health Sciences trust at ASUMH. Following the death of Dr. Bernice "Bea" Eileen Gotaas in 2012, her estate donated more than $1 million to the health science department.
When students graduate, Gist does follow-up and said they've been successful entering the workforce. She added she's "very excited" for the lab.
"Our graduates find jobs," Gist said.
State Desk on 07/25/2016