Healthcare Simulation Center
JCCC's Healthcare Simulation Center is so realistic it would be the envy of any hospital in the country. The 2,000-square-foot center has the look, feel and equipment of four general medical-surgery rooms and a large suite that can function as an operating room, labor/delivery room, emergency room or multi-bed recovery room.
"This type of center is very unusual. Other nursing programs may have individual rooms for simulation but not a whole hospital environment as realistic as this one," said Kathy Carver, JCCC Zamierowski Family Endowed of Professor Nursing and Medical Simulation.
Each of the four rooms has infusion pumps for intravenous fluids and medications; vital sign monitors, including telemetry capability to measure abnormal heart activity; lines with real gases like oxygen; human waste disposal systems; sinks; power columns; and communication lines for calling hospital codes. Every room has its own provisions, including IV tubing, EKG cable, phlebotomy supplies and respiratory equipment.
A multi-functional suite has four large high-efficiency, shadow-free operating lights mounted on the ceiling and a surgery hand-washing area. Students can train for surgery, births, including ones with C-sections and other complications or care of multiple patients in a post-op unit or trauma center.
The hospital unit is furnished with four hospital beds, four transport beds, an operating table, birthing beds, bassinet for newborns and defibrillators.
Even ambient sounds of a hospital, such as operator pages, will be programmed into the lab.
"We want to keep the setting as real as possible," Carver said.
The center is populated by highly sophisticated patient simulators that can be programmed with hundreds of symptoms of acute and chronic diseases/disorders and respond physiologically to treatment. The center has several simulators - seven adults, two pediatric and two birthing, with newborns.
Hidden behind each patient room is a dock where faculty operate the simulators and audiovisual cameras film students. "Audiovisual feedback is used during the debriefing with students," Carver said. "Viewing their communication and skills enhances their ability to analyze and improve patient care. Nursing faculty have learned to appreciate how much the technology enhances teaching."
Students start working with simulators during their second week in the nursing program. "The students take the simulation exercise very seriously and take a lot of pride in being prepared," Carver said. "It becomes evident that performance is directly related to knowledge base. The simulators make our students good practitioners by building their critical thinking skills and confidence."
Funding for the patient simulation lab and added nursing faculty was made possible from the Educate, Enrich and Enable Fund; Drs. David and Mary Zamierowski; Kansas Board of Regents; Victor E. Speas Foundation, Bank of America, Trustee; Olathe Medical Center; and Mary Katherine Goldsmith.
For more information about the nursing program at JCCC, call 913-469-8500, ext. 3157, or kcarver@jccc.edu.