Tech school gets two human patient simulators
SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY

COURTESY PHOTO Practical Nursing students Cindy Desruisseaux, left, and Ashlee Hull work with a new human patient simulator that High Tech Central was able to purchase with a state grant.

High Tech Central was recently awarded a Florida Succeed Grant from the Department of Education to offer a parttime Practical Nursing program. The grant has also allowed the school to purchase of two human patient simulators, one adult and one baby. These simulators are very lifelike. They breathe, cough, speak and possess many normal human body functions.

With the purchase of the simulators, faculty members received two days of intensive training to learn how to program and operate the simulators. More importantly, faculty will learn to develop scenarios like those with real hospitalized patients. Students will have the opportunity to apply critical thinking skills to solve problems and respond appropriately to the patient. As they do so, a Web cam records the encounter and the instructor is able to illicit patient response appropriate to the action of the student. Ultimately, scenarios will provide students experiences that can be substituted for some of the actual experience in the hospitals.

For more information on the programs offered in Health Science Education, please call 334-4544.