Visit to a Sim Lab!

Last week, Sherleena and I went to Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Science in Cincinnati for a meeting of the Tri-State Nursing Skills Lab Consortium. This is a group of nurses from the three states (I have no idea which three - except for Ohio) who get together and share ideas and "recipes"(more about that later) for their Sim lab mannequins. The sales rep from Laerdal, the premier maker of these Sim people, was there and gave a demonstration of all the things the 3G Sim person can do. OU just purchased one of these guys for our skills lab and we wanted to see how he/she performed. Boy, was it impressive! I took a quick video with my iPhone - it's not very good, but if you loaok closely, you can see his eyes blink occasionally, and he's breathing. He also can bleed - arterial or venous - and he can have 2 kinds of seizures - tonic or tonic-clonic - his lips can turn blue, his tongue can swell, he can talk, scream, moan, puke, urinate, defecate, have edematous limbs, has all the pulses you and I do, he can cry real tears, have many kinds of heart rhythms, and on and on.... it's a bit weird and a lot cool. And then we took a tour of their skills lab.... Holy Toledo....er, Cincinnati! We had to pick up our chins from the floor. It is a lab to envy! Here are the pictures:

EKG monitor for the 3G mannequin

Showing us how he bleeds!

Sim control station

This is their HUGE skills lab - about 20 mannequins in electric beds, fully equipped.

Another view

Child mannequin

With 02 mask

Sherleena checking it out!

The one mannequin of color....more about that later

Bedside table and suction equipment

Headboard with gloved and sharps container

Using an old nylon - a  tattoo "sleeve" was made for this mannequin!

To practice tracheostomy care

They even have a storage room...

with a washer and dryer!