The robots don’t give the students answers, and it’s not because the robots are dumb, either.
They’re dummies that are robots, and they provide learning opportunities for nursing students while sparing actual humans the discomfort that results from being practiced upon. (I remember my mom practicing her blood drawing technique on my dad when she was in nursing school and had graduated from oranges. He didn’t appreciate it much.)
People often learn best when they can use their senses and have hands-on experience, Bridges added. One of the positive things about using the robots for training is that if a mistake is make, then there is the opportunity to correct, she said.
DCH partnered with the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Science’s Institution for Rural Health Research in June to create the simulation center. In all, there are about 10 robotic mannequins that cost anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 apiece.
On some of the more high tech robots, the units can talk to say if they are in pain and a computer records every medical intervention, including whether the medicine administered was the appropriate medication, Bridges said. Colored fluids demonstrate whether an IV or intraosseous access was done properly.
For years, hospitals and especially universities have had simulated dummies to help with medical training. But earlier this year DCH became one of the only hospitals in the state to open its own simulation center.
“The simulation labs are very popular now, primarily in nursing schools,” Bridges said. “But in recent years hospitals have been branching out and using simulation in their training.”
While simple CPR dummies and other medical mannequins have been used for 20 years or more, the computerized, high-tech robots are something that really has come about only within the last 10 years, Bridges said.
DCH’s simulation center is set up much like a hospital room, one room even with a sink and patient bathroom. Cameras are set up overhead so that students or medical staff can watch the videos to determine if care was provided correctly.
Even the hospital’s janitorial staff has used to the space to train on how to properly decontaminate the hospital’s bathrooms.
Tags: mannequins, nurse, nurses, Nursing, nursing school, nursing students, robots, students