NC Kentucky News

ECTC nursing students palpate contractions on a labor and delivery high-fidelity mannequin and provide maternal support.
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s nursing program is now training students on a new labor and delivery high-fidelity mannequin, Victoria, capable of simulating up to nine true-to-life labor and delivery experiences.

Victoria will advance the opportunity for students to develop skills needed to provide safe and effective care for early pregnancy complications, high-risk deliveries, postpartum emergencies, and non-pregnancy scenarios.

“With Victoria and her baby, we’re able to simulate situations that students before would have only experienced in clinicals,” said Julie Hampton, Assistant Professor of nursing. “This technology will provide next-level education for our students on women’s health. We’re very proud to have her.”

Kentucky Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, a grant led by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, provided $62,000 in funding for Victoria as well as other funding for ECTC’s Innovation in Healthcare Initiative. Victoria’s arrival is a direct result of the effort to address unfunded needs to increase the number of skilled healthcare professionals in communities across the region.

All nursing cohorts and respiratory care students can train with Victoria on breath and cardiac rhythms, intubation scenarios and airway sounds that are synchronized to breathing patterns.

“The beauty of simulation is that the students can make mistakes without hurting anyone and they can learn from those mistakes prior to being in the actual clinical setting,” said Sandra Marques, Director of ECTC’s nursing program. “Simulation is so very important because it allows us to really help the students think critically and reassess their nursing process.”

Additional elements of Victoria include:

•    Replaceable bellies and perennial attachments to simulate labor and delivery experiences including shoulder dystocia, breech and C-section deliveries.

•    Interactive eyes that can track objects visually and present signs of stress, stroke, head trauma, drug use, and many other diseases and conditions.

•    Response to medication type, dose, and frequency injected into the lower right arm.

•    Full-term baby of realistic size and weight with programmable heart and respiratory sounds, crying, movement and cyanosis (turning blue because of lack of oxygen in your blood).

To learn more about ECTC’s healthcare programs — all of which are tuition free for eligible students through the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship — visit the Program Finder or call 270-769-2371.

Original source can be found here.