Kathy Huffman, EcO15 Jefferson Co. Coordinator
For three days, Ivy Tech Community College-Madison Campus was the training ground for thirty healthcare professionals and educators from Southeastern Indiana. The world’s leading expert in simulation, Dr. Pam Jeffries, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, led the Healthcare Simulation Institute.
EcO15, Economic Opportunities through Education by 2015, is investing grant funds to develop high fidelity simulations. These simulations use specialized mannequins that can be programmed to present a wide range of medical symptoms and conditions.
Gene Ann Shapinsky, Nursing Department Chair, Ivy Tech Community College, stated, “Simulation opens a wide variety of doors for clinical experiences for nurses, medical assistants, and EMT students by exposing these students to real-world scenarios that they otherwise might not get to see first-hand in their clinical experiences.” A nursing student may not see a choking patient during training but the simulation mannequin, or Sim Man, can be programmed to simulate a penny lodged in a child’s throat. Other examples of scenarios could include: allergic reactions, heart attacks, and trauma patients from car wrecks. The simulations are limitless. “Simulation also allows the area hospitals to complete competency checklists for current medical staff, such as doctors and nurses. These simulation labs will be used by all Southeastern Indiana area hospitals to conduct skills test for their current employees,” said Shapinsky.
According to Jim Battin, EcO15 Healthcare Coordinator, “The benefits of using simulation in healthcare education are significant. Students and healthcare personnel have an opportunity to practice procedures and gain confidence before performing in a clinical setting. As a result, patient safety and care will be improved.” Battin adds that, “we are limited in designing simulation scenarios only by our imagination.”
Participants in thesimulation training will help develop a library of simulations that will be available to medical educators throughout the ten county EcO15 region. This is a significant contribution to healthcare education because, as experienced by the Ivy Tech nursing staff when creating their first simulation module, the time required to create a module is 40 plus hours. The library of simulation modules to be shared among the region will save thousands of hours of behind the scenes work and over-time pay for the schools and hospitals. The participants are essentially the experts that will share the knowledge gained from this institute with their colleagues, students, and the community.
Ivy Tech, Hanover College and King’s Daughters’ Hospital and Health Services are part of this Regional Clinical Simulation Collaborative. The collaborative will allow schools and healthcare employers an opportunity to upgrade professional skills and improve patient care.
Celeste Sutter, Environmental Health and Safety officer/Technical Coordinator for Sciences at Hanover College said, “Attending the healthcare institute has been a wonderful experience. Learning from Dr. Pam Jeffries, the world’s leading expert in simulation, has opened the door for project-based learning not only for Hanover College students but for King’s Daughters’ staff, Ivy Tech students, and local high school students as well. Local high schools, post-secondary institutions, and the healthcare industry will be able to work together collaboratively to focus on pre-health careers and will have a huge impact on healthcare education for our community and the Southeastern region of Indiana.”