New Clinical Simulation Center Updates | September 2022
Healthcare simulation centers are constantly being unveiled and upgraded across the United States and globally. As technology progresses, these clinical spaces are able to help transform how medical education and training are completed and have become integral to learners’ medical education within such clinical education buildings, medical centers, or training facilities devoted to healthcare simulation. Each new healthcare simulation center that opens provides even greater opportunities for learners to gain the skills and experience necessary to perform in the field and prioritize patient safety. This HealthySimulation.com article shares the most recent updates announced from various healthcare simulation centers around the world as of September 2022.
New UW-Milwaukee Simulation Center
According to UW-Milwaukee, starting in Fall 2022, nursing learners at UWM at Waukesha and UW-Parkside will gain hands-on work experience at the UWM James and Yvonne Ziemer Clinical Simulation Center. The facility has 23 hospital beds allowing learners the ability to practice with manikins to simulate medical procedures such as childbirth. Graduate learners will use space in the simulation center for physical assessment and other advanced practice experiences. The Ziemer Clinical Simulation center has three skills labs where learners will learn to work with medications, including IVs, catheters, wound care, lift equipment, and ambulation aids.
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NCH’s Simulation Center Awarded a $1 Million Challenge Grant from the Schulze Family Foundation
The Judith & Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center at NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Florida has been awarded a grant opportunity of $1 million by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. According to the NCH, to receive this grant, the healthcare system must raise $1 million for the simulation center before May 1, 2023. Gifts of any size contributed within the allotted time period to the simulation program will count toward the Schulze Family Foundation challenge grant.
Bellarmine Receives $1 Million to Expand Health Program, Simulation Center
According to WAVE News, Bellarmine University received a $1 million investment to expand the school’s College of Health Professions and create a new simulation training center. The federal award was announced by Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth, who secured the award for the college through the House Appropriations Committee’s Community Project Funding program, according to a release.
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Bellarmine will use the funds to purchase advanced health technology for its simulation training center and hire additional staff. The funds will also allow extended support for training and education of students, including opportunities for Jefferson County Public Schools students from K-12. Yarmuth said the funds were much needed as the need to grow the healthcare workforce continues.
Bayhealth Medical Center Opens Operation Simulation Room
According to Delaware Online, former nurse, and now Delaware Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long (center), helped with the official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the medical simulation center at Bayhealth Medical Kent Campus in Dover in early September 2022. Dr. Bradford Mitchell showed invited guests the new operation simulation room, and Dr. Dean Johnson, Emergency Medicine Program Director at Bayhealth Medical Center, demonstrated how physicians can practice treating an accident victim at the facility’s new simulation center.
Accelerated Nursing Program’s New Location Boasts More Space, New Sim Lab
Recognizing a need for more room and updated labs for incoming learners, Seton Hall University has reported that the school’s Second-Degree Accelerated BSN program (ABSN) has moved from a previous location in Lakewood to Freehold, New Jersey. The ABSN program now occupies an independent suite on the second floor of the building which is fully accessible for learners, faculty, and staff with disabilities. The space houses two classrooms; one classroom accommodates 30 seats, the other 40. There is an additional classroom that is equipped with seven beds, two sinks, and two seating areas and will serve as a clinical skills and simulation lab.
UTPB to Rename Simulation Lab Following Expanded Partnership with Midland Health
According to NewsWest9, the University of Texas Permian Basin and Midland Health announced an expanded partnership that will benefit the School of Nursing at UTPB. The university will rename the simulation lab to “The Midland Health Simulation and Learning Resource Center at UTPB,” as Midland Health’s financial contribution will help improve the SIM lab. This symbiotic relationship will allow both learners at UTPB and current nurses at Midland Health to better their skills, while also having the ability to learn how to operate new medical equipment in the sim lab.
Mid-State Celebrates New Healthcare Simulation Center
According to WAOW.com, the Aspirus Riverview Hospital in Wisconsin Rapids is now home to the Mid-State Healthcare Simulation Center. Mid-State Technical College, along with multiple community partners, gathered at the simulation center to celebrate the project’s success. The main objective is for learners to get real-time feedback – learning through mistakes without putting a patient’s health at risk. The simulation center is expected to see over 350 Mid-State learners during the Fall 2022 semester.
More About Clinical Simulation Centers
Building a healthcare simulation center involves a huge amount of planning. All the stakeholders must come together and have input into the construction. The technical logistics and equipment are complex. For example, some healthcare simulation centers have simulation laboratories that exactly mimic an operating room, a delivery room, an emergency department, a medical-surgical floor room, an ICU room, etc. Experts from medical specialties and educators need to have input into the planning phase of the construction. Once the construction is complete, funds are needed for ongoing maintenance, repair, and replacement of equipment as the facility ages.
In many medical simulation training centers, the observation room serves as the debriefing room. In addition, there is usually a separate control room where the simulation technician sits. This is the person dubbed a Simulation Technology Specialist who remotely controls the manikin, such as the Laerdal SimMan3G, and who is responsible for setting up all the equipment and applying any special effects medical makeup called Moulage.
In addition, a clinical educator will be present in the control room. The educator, who often speaks the voice of the manikin controls the physiological and spoken responses of the manikin usually in response to the interventions of the learners within the sim lab. The setup below would be typical for a small simulation center.
Imagine a large-scale healthcare simulation center with multiple sim labs, control rooms, and debriefing. Add in patient examination rooms with standardized patients, rooms full of task trainers, banks of computers, and conference facilities, and the simulation center could easily occupy thousands of square feet.
These medical simulation centers cost millions of dollars to build and operate and are primarily found in large medical centers and universities. Funding for simulation centers can come from donations, grants, and university/medical center funding. Some simulation centers generate funds by renting out their spaces to other institutions or offering courses for which they charge a fee.
Learn More About Clinical Simulation Centers
Lance Baily, BA, EMT-B, is the Founder & CEO of HealthySimulation.com, which he started while serving as the Director of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas back in 2010. Lance is also the Founder and acting Advisor to the Board of SimGHOSTS.org, the world’s only non-profit organization dedicated to supporting professionals operating healthcare simulation technologies. His co-edited Book: “Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Operations, Technology, and Innovative Practice” is cited as a key source for professional certification in the industry. Lance’s background also includes serving as a Simulation Technology Specialist for the LA Community College District, EMS fire fighting, Hollywood movie production, rescue diving, and global travel. He and his wife Abigail Baily, PhD live in Las Vegas, Nevada with their two amazing daughters.
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