OIL CITY – Clarion University–Venango Campus will soon acquire $400,000 in state-of-the-art medical education equipment, thanks to a $200,000 grant provided through the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. An additional $200,000 in matching funds will be provided by Clarion University.
It is a high priority of Governor Rendell’s administration and the legislature to maximize the competitive advantage of the Pennsylvania business community through the creation of effective partnerships of workforce and economic development entities and educational providers. The Job Training Fund Equipment Grant was created to ensure that the educational delivery system formed by those partnerships was armed with the most up-to-date equipment upon which to train its future workforce.
Clarion University–Venango Campus has come to be defined by the innovative network of partnerships through which it has been able to enhance and expand programs, extend outreach, share resources, and meet the changing needs of the Commonwealth and its workforce in a dynamic and cost-effective manner. The equipment purchased through this grant will be shared with its clinical partners at UPMC Northwest and Meadville Medical Center, and used to enrich the learning experience in the campus’ nursing, chemistry, and biology labs.
Life-size computerized simulation manikins provide an interactive learning environment in which nursing students have an opportunity to practice clinical and critical thinking skills in realistic, real-time situations without fear of making a mistake with a live patient. Instructors can select multiple scenarios to which students can react, assess the patient’s condition, and provide the appropriate treatment, thereby developing their competence and self-confidence.
Educating medical professionals is very challenging in that no two patients are alike. These highly sophisticated human patient simulators can be programmed to a wide array of patient profiles, including cardiovascular, pulmonary and neurologic characteristics. “Patient” reactions from drug allergies to the flutter of an eyelid and the size of a pupil can be controlled and monitored.
Among the simulated “patients” nursing students will soon be learning with is Noelle, a computer interactive maternal birthing system in which instructors can select from multiple scenarios, providing students a complete birthing experience before, during, and after deliveries that can be programmed to last from five minutes to sixteen hours. Students use virtual instruments to monitor the “mother’s” heart rate, blood pressure, pulse oxygenation, and other vital signs, as well as that of the fetus, and can provide medication and fluids through the manikin’s IV arm. The full-body female manikin is so realistic that her chest rises and falls with each breath, and her skin turns an ominous blue if her respiration is inadequate.
A 3-6 month-old infant and an adult male manikin complete the family of patient simulators.
In addition to the human patient simulators, the Labor and Industry Grant will make it possible to replicate a hospital setting in the nursing lab, complete with a critical care ICU patient bed unit with wall-mounted vital signs monitor, and three hospital beds with head-mounted monitor units.
Nursing and radiologic sciences and respiratory care students will benefit from a myriad of equipment that will be purchased for the chemistry and biology laboratories.
Equipment for use in educating respiratory therapy students to work with pediatric and adult patients will also be purchased for use in the clinical portion of their program.
Clarion University