Training simulation center for nursing students at USM should help address Maine shortage
By Talia Clarke
Click here for updates on this story
PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) — The University of Southern Maine received $2.5 million in funding to help address the state’s nursing shortage. The money came from a $1 million donation from the Boyne family and $1.5 million through a bond initiative to support simulation and nursing in the state of Maine.
On Tuesday, a ribbon cutting was held for the Boyne Family Advanced Simulation Center and Interprofessional Education Center on the Portland campus. Nursing students gave tours of the two-floor state-of-the-art learning space inside the science building.
The Boyne Center includes a nursing simulation lab that replicates both hospital rooms and a home setting, along with an athletic and physical training teaching lab and a professional health teaching space to support related health care professions.
Inside the simulated clinic, specially trained actors will sit in a waiting room until students guide them to a changing room and exam room. Down the hall is a mock apartment so students can practice everything they would need to do and check during a home visit.
Upstairs, there are life-like mannequins that can blink and talk and simulate everything from breathing issues to birth and a whole range of other medical conditions.
“The students have the ability to start IV to provide many different types of therapy. While in the control room, faculty and simulation technicians control what’s happening in that room. They can increase the vital signs or show changes in the patient’s status that we need our students to recognize,” said Dr. Brenda Petersen, Associate Dean of Nursing at USM.
Students say it is great to be able to practice before dealing with real patients.
“It’s OK to, like, make mistakes because you can talk about it,” said USM senior Skye Howard.
School officials say this should help address the nursing shortage in Maine.
“We are continuing at a crisis level shortage of nurses, so ensuring that we’re training students to provide safe care, quality care as our students through this technology, through the support of the voters through the support of the Boyne family is transformative,” said Petersen.
The Boyne Center more than doubles USM’s simulation lab area and will help the University prepare Maine’s next generation of nursing professionals.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
