Anderson Oconee Pickens

Human Patient Simulators are Great Adjunct to Classroom;
Give Students More Confidence and Competence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5/16/2005
CONTACT: JANET FULLER, 646-1343
(By Lisa Garrett)

PENDLETON --- For most new nurses, the first day on the job is often filled with uncertainty. They've got the textbook material down pat, but it could take months to feel confident with clinical procedures because traditional classroom sessions have involved practice on plastic mannequins that could not simulate true patient responses and patient care situations can be unpredictable.

In fact, many say their first experience with an emergency condition, such as a heart attack, is on the job.

That will soon change for graduates of Tri-County Technical College's nursing programs. The College now has three human patient simulators, which are teaching tools designed to look and respond like real patients. Nicknamed STAN for Standard Man, these learning tools teach students how to care for critically ill patients in a safe, simulated environment. Funding for these units, which are valued at $150,000, came from The Abney Foundation. Two of the human patient simulators are housed in the Hayden Abney Fulp Health/Science Building, and one is in the Continuing Education Division for its Emergency Medical Technician training.

STAN is a sophisticated, computer-driven, full-sized mannequin that blinks, speaks and breathes. He/she has a heartbeat and a pulse, and he mirrors human responses to such procedures as CPR, intravenous medication, intubation, ventilation and catheterization. His eyes blink and tear, his pupils dilate and contract, his tongue swells, blood pressure falls, his heart races and his internal organs bleed. Even his lungs can collapse.

Hands-on experience is the best teacher," said Janet Fuller, head of the College's associate degree Nursing program. "STAN allows us (instructors) to simulate specific situations by programming the physiology while students build confidence in their own critical thinking and decision-making skills."

STAN is controlled through the instructor's workstation or a wireless remote control.

"This form of controlled learning gives the students the opportunity to make mistakes and to learn from them," added Fuller. "The beauty is that students can practice patient-care skills again and again without causing discomfort or danger to real patients. STAN will be changing the way our students learn to give safe and competent nursing practice."

For example, Fuller can pre-program the mannequin to have a heart attack one hour into the clinical training while observing the students' responses. "It gives us them opportunity to pick up physiological changes and react to them and to learn from them in a safe situation," she explained.

Using computerized software, the instructor can simulate experiences such as a heart attack, all kinds of respiratory problems, and trauma, including gunshot wounds. Most scenarios are emergency situations but he can be programmed to deal with post-surgery experiences, such as massive infections, including correct physiological responses to more than 60 common medications.

Instructors are able to see how the students think and how they process the information. "We can see what areas they need help in and go back to the classroom for more lecture and training. If a student commits an error, the simulator can show the effects on the patient in a safe environment, allowing the instructor to focus on instruction to ensure no such error happens again. STAN is as close to reality as you can get. This is a great adjunct to what we can do in the classroom because it gives students more confidence and competence," said Fuller.

"Thanks to STAN and the Abney Foundation, we hope to graduate much better prepared students," she said.

The human patient simulators are manufactured by Medical Education Technologies, Inc (METI). The company presented a $1,000 nursing scholarship to the Tri-County to support student learning opportunities in patient simulation. The scholarship will be given annually to the College by METI.