ALBANY – Albany State University is now home to a nursing and health sciences center with modern simulation technology that is better and more modern than any of the 26 facilities across the University System of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, the system’s chancellor, said Wednesday.
ASU held its ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Nursing and Health Sciences Simulation Center. Campus leaders invited about 100 city, county and state leaders and community stakeholders to tour the facility for the first time. The interdisciplinary simulation center houses simulation rooms for acute care, labor and delivery, emergency services and more. The rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, including AI and lifelike mannequins that can cough, speak and even deliver a baby.
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Lawrence Drake, ASU’s interim president, called the opening of the facility a milestone for the university.
“This center is the future,” he said. “This state-of-the-art facility will serve as a functional asset for how we instruct … for nursing and health care.”
Sarah Brinson, dean of the Darton College of Health Professions, said the center will help meet the needs of the health care work force in southwest Georgia through community partnerships and professional development.
She said the center is designed to provide hands-on learning for students in all 13 of ASU’s health care career programs. Brinson noted that most simulation centers are built for nursing only, but ASU’s will create a space for students studying radiology, respiratory care, physical therapy and other disciplines as well.
The facility is expected to host more than 900 incoming and continuing nursing and health science students for fall 2024.
Brinson said creating the facility was a four-year process, involving feedback on the needs of students, faculty and staff.
Students will get a realistic experience of what it’s like to have a patient arrive in an ambulance, be brought to the emergency room, receive acute care and rehabilitation, and finally, be discharged.
In one room, students might tend to a “patient” with respiratory issues. In another, they might tend to a mannequin’s wound. They speak to and help the mannequins as if they were real patients, and the mannequins can even respond with a cough or an expression of how they’re feeling.
“You can see the full spectrum of what is going on with these patients,” Brinson said. “This experience is crucial for (students’) development … to master their skills and prepare them for real world challenges.”
Timyrius Lewis, the president of the ASU Nursing Student Organization, said it’s exciting for him and other students because most schools in the area don’t have such learning opportunities.
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Lewis has been a nursing student at ASU for one year. He said he’s excited to use the facility in his remaining years. He’s already used one of the acute care rooms, simulating inserting a tube into and giving a mannequin patient medication to control pain, nausea and vomiting.
“It changes our experience because we don’t have to outsource to other schools and facilities to gather clinical skills,” he said. “We can do this right here on campus. It’s easy and accessible.”
Lewis said the facility will allow students to feel more supported and confident leaving the program.
Perdue said the facility shows ASU is leading the future of health care training from nursing to physical therapy to EMTs.
“People coming into the health care field have to have exposure, and that’s exactly what this building does,” he said. “It exposes them to modern situations where they can walk into almost any hospital in Georgia and see similar types of things. That’s what simulation is all about.”
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Credit: Lucille Lannigan
Perdue said health care is critical across Georgia.
“We’re a blessed state in many ways, but health care professionals is not (an area) where we’ve led the country, and we want to do that,” he said. “We are going to do that through the University System of Georgia.”
Perdue said the new facility makes ASU a magnet school that will draw students from across not only the state but the entire Southeast. He said there may be opportunities to hold courses for other campuses to fully utilize the space.
Brinson said she’s preparing for increased prospective student interest, and that it might bring an opportunity for more new faculty to serve the higher interest. She said having new, cutting-edge technology at ASU is especially exciting for students of southwest Georgia, an area that is predominantly poverty stricken.
“This building is more than just bricks and mortar,” she said. “It is a beacon of hope and progress.”
Credit: Albany Herald
Credit: Albany Herald
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