New efforts — including sophisticated mannequins that bleed and breathe — aim to draw more people to the profession
Pennsylvania is facing a shortage of 16,100 registered nurses this year, according to a Pennsylvania Center for Health Careers report, with the need greatest in rural locations. Two Penn State efforts are helping to address this challenge with new high-tech labs, one mobile, to enhance learning for student nurses and health care professionals in these areas.
In one initiative, the Penn State Learning Center in Lewistown opened a multidisciplinary teaching laboratory in partnership with Lewistown Hospital School of Nursing and Mifflin-Juniata Career and Technology Center Practical Nursing programs. The Science and Health Lab features a family of life-like adult and child human patient simulators (called “sims”). They not only register palpable pulses and blood pressures but also bleed, among other things. These teaching tools also realistically simulate nearly any medical condition.
A second room in the lab is equipped for teaching basic science courses and for conducting scientific experiments. A grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and continuing funding from the partners are supporting the lab.
Kay A. Hamilton, president and C.E.O of Lewistown Hospital, said the lab benefits hospital staff and community members working in allied health organizations as well as nursing students.
“Our community health care professionals can learn and train close to home,” she said.
Weekly summer youth science and health camps centered around the lab start in June, thanks to Kirk A. Gilbert, Learning Center science coordinator and rural health educator. Also, high school students will get to explore nursing and allied health careers through lab visits.
On the Road
In another effort, Penn State Mont Alto is taking nursing education on the road with a state-of-the-art learning facility on wheels, transformed from a 32-foot Winnebago. The Mobile Simulation Lab was the brainchild of Carranda Barkdoll, campus coordinator of nursing, and Chancellor David Gnage after the mother of a nursing faculty member donated her RV to the campus for educational use in honor of her late husband.
Barkdoll and Gnage envisioned taking simulation training mobile, with an iStan, from Medical Education Technologies Inc. IStan is the first patient simulator based around a human-like skeletal structure, allowing for realistic weight and movement, so it can be posed and transported easily. It’s also fully wireless and battery operated.
With an innovation grant from the University and funding from community organizations, the RV was remodeled with the goal of educating nursing students and delivering training to health care professionals.
“The lab provides an excellent nursing tool for our students and engages us more with the community,” said Gnage.
This spring marks a road trip for Barkdoll and her staff: in March, a Philadelphia high school; in April, a nursing conference in Harrisburg and the University Park campus as part of For the Future—The Campaign for Penn State Students; and in May, the Franklin County Children’s Wellness Day.
