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Community College Nursing August 07, 2003 He's not a new administrator, faculty member or student. He's SimMan, a computerized patient simulator that gives students a realistic learning experience -- whether it's the correct way to check a pulse or how handle to a heart attack or stroke. "SimMan will provide many simulated learning opportunities that we previously could not reproduce within the clinical setting," said Martha Houchin, chair of the Health Sciences Division and director of the Associate Degree of Nursing program at the community college. "Opportunities that possibly one student might have been exposed to will be available for all students." Western Kentucky University's Bowling Green Community College received Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Title I grants to purchase SimMan and equipment from Laerdal, a leading supplier of emergency medicine products. Bowling Green Community College is one of three schools in the state utilizing SimMan. The others are the University of Kentucky and the Glasgow Regional Center. U.S. armed forces used more than 100 patient simulators to train medics for war. "I think the most exciting educational tool that SimMan provides is the opportunity to put the student in a position where they have to make a thorough assessment of the patient situation based on real-time parameters programmed into SimMan, and then based upon this assessment the student will have to use critical thinking skills to formulate a plan of care for SimMan," Houchin said. SimMan will provide valuable training for about 190 nursing students at the community college, nursing instructor Nancy English said. "Students are our number one priority and they ought to have cutting-edge technology," English said. "Our goal is to produce top-of-the-line nurses so we must provide them with top-of-the-line training. I want our students to be able to go straight into a hospital position with a better feel for what's going on." The training opportunities don't stop at BGCC's nursing courses, English said. SimMan (he'll be named after a contest this fall) has the potential to serve area hospitals, health professionals, emergency personnel or disaster agencies. "I can foresee a world of uses for it," she said. Other scenarios that can be programmed into SimMan include advanced life support, biohazard poisoning and smallpox infection. In each scenario, SimMan responds to the treatment provided by students. SimMan's equipment includes several injured or diseased body parts that can changed depending on the scenario. In the most extreme circumstances, SimMan's internal organs could begin to shut down and he could die. "With this tool, we are able to present the abnormal and take students through the scenarios of what you're supposed to do with those abnormal situations," English said. SimMan will be housed in a nursing classroom at WKU's South Campus. Ward Moran, microcomputing consultant, has provided his technical expertise in setting up SimMan and his equipment. SimMan's computer equipment will print out scenario logs to track assessments and treatment, while video equipment will allow students to review their assessments. "We're training our students for the profession of nursing," English said. "Nurses are using more and more technology in their jobs." For more information, contact Nancy English at (270) 780-2546. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
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