Robots Aid Teaching at Catawba Community College
Published Jul 03, 2008
Catawba Valley Community College student Crystal Hildebran works on a simulated patient, a key technological teaching tool in the classroom.
Somewhere on the fifth floor at Catawba Valley Community College, a student nurse responds to a young patient’s moans.
A little different from patients the nurse will later meet in clinical practice, this time the tearful “child” is actually a robotic simulator called SimMan.
LuAnn Martin, MSN, is coordinator of the simulation hospital at CVCC and says the college has invested in these robotic instruction tools – including a man, birthing mother, infant and child – to enhance classroom teaching with applied training.
“It’s an actual clinical experience,” she says.
Students have to go through all the steps of caring for the patient, calling the lab, conferring with the physician and handling anxious family members. “It teaches them to work together … to collaborate and communicate,” Martin says.
While Martin is quick to add that simulation doesn’t replace hands-on clinical fieldwork, she points out it is an important part of the mix.
“One of the main things is that it’s a safe environment in which student nurses can learn and make mistakes,” she says. “It gives students the ability to correct errors without consequences to a real patient.”
While the patients aren’t real, they are very lifelike and can be programmed to answer questions, have seizures, cough and make other sounds.
“SimMan can bite you,” Martin warns with a laugh.
For future patients, the bottom line is these simulated experiences have the potential to positively impact real world outcomes.
Story by Cindy Sanders
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