WVU STEPS into new center
Students can learn lifesaving skills at one-stop facility
BY CASSIE SHANER The Dominion Post
Gail VanVoorhis learned to give injections on an orange, but her students won’t have to at WVU’s new Simulation Training in Education and Patient Safety (STEPS) center. The 4,000-square-foot facility, on the third floor of WVU’s Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center (HSC), opened Friday. It houses four labs, two classrooms, two debriefing rooms and six training mannequins so lifelike they blink, breathe, coo and kick. “It’s a great day for us,” said Van-Voorhis, director of clinical practice and simulation for the School of Nursing. “We’re doing lifesaving work here. Now we get to practice that before we go into a patient area.” The mannequins range in size from 6 weeks old to adult. They are designed to simulate a live patient’s physiological response to gases, medicines and other medical treatments in a safe environment. “If they make a mistake here, it’s not going to hurt a real patient,” VanVoorhis said. She said the mannequins won’t keep students from working with live patients,
but they can be used to simulate situations students will encounter on the job. Faculty members can control their physiology by computer, challenging students to assess their condition and respond appropriately in an emergency situation. Each scenario can be taped, and students can review their work in the debriefing rooms to see how they did. “It allows the faculty to provide feedback to the students as they learn,” School of Nursing Dean Georgia Narsavage said. “It builds self-confidence, and it ensures that our patients in the hospital get the best care.” Nursing students will not be the only ones using the facility. David Wilks, assistant dean for technology in medical education for the School of Medicine, said the STEPS center is designed for interdisciplinary use. Students studying pharmacy, medicine and dentistry will use it, in addition to nurses and other staff. Simulation training was available before the STEPS center was created, but Wilks said, individual departments purchased the equipment, and it wasn’t used every day. “By having a centralized facility, it’s cost effective,” Wilks said. “We can buy a piece of equipment and use it across many students.” The facility cost about $3 million. According to a press release, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., secured $2.7 million in federal funds, and donors chipped in about $400,000. Tours and a dedication ceremony for WVU officials and donors were held Friday. The names of those who contributed $5,000 or more are listed on a wall display in the facility’s lobby. But HSC Development Officer Mimi Wilson said fundraising is ongoing. The additional money will help maintain the facility, add space and pay for research on quality improvement and patient safety. “Once people understand that this is not meant to replace the kind of hands-on teaching and learning we’re known for ... they’re going to want to get involved,” Wilson said. “They’re going to want to learn more. It’s going to make such a huge difference in health care education.” Wilks said the second phase of the project will occur in the next few years. It will create dedicated space for live actors to work with students as pretend patients and allow students to focus on task training, such as inserting a chest tube. The second phase expansion will be about 8,000 square feet, but Wilks said it should cost less money because some materials have already been purchased. Ron Rittenhouse/The Dominion Post photos Judi Polak (above, center) administers an IV into a mannequin arm as Georgia Narsavage (back, eft), dean of WVU’s School of Nursing, Stephen Brooks and Patti Heilman watch the procedure during the dedication of the Simulation Training in Education and Patient Safety center Friday. Gail Van-Voorhis (left photo, left), director of clinical practice and simulation for the School of Nursing, and Wayne King (right) use a stethoscope and take the pulse of a mannequin baby, as Terry Schwinghammer, of the School of Pharmacy, watches.
