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Saving ‘SimMan’
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Nursing students Katie Potter (background) and Emily Svelmoe (foreground) work on SimMan, who is controlled by professor Annette Browning (below).
The patient lies propped up on his back,
IVs inserted in veins in his arm. His vital
signs are displayed on a monitor nearby.
“I can’t breathe and my chest hurts,”
he says. “Help.”
From a computer a few feet away, Biola
nursing professor Annette Browning holds the
patient’s fate in her hands. Literally.
With a few strokes on her keyboard,
Browning can change the patient’s heart rate,
make him wheeze, even decide what he will
say next.
The “patient” is a high fidelity mannequin
named SimMan, an advanced patient
simulator that allows students to hone their
skills without fear of harming anyone. Two
video cameras mounted above SimMan’s bed
record the students’ responses to particular
scenarios.
Browning can lead the students through a
critical situation by programming SimMan to
have different pathologies, such as septic
shock or congestive heart failure.
Acquired by Biola’s nursing department
in May, SimMan has pulses, lung and heart
sounds, realistic anatomy – even a catheter.
Students can administer medication, take
blood pressure and check temperature. They
can also use SimMan to practice CPR when
Browning makes SimMan “code” (go into
cardiac arrest).
SimMan rests in the Kartsman Simulation
Michael Musser
Lab in Soubirou Hall. The lab looks like a
hospital room in an intensive care unit.
While simulation has been used for
decades in the armed services and in aviation,
its use in nursing education is relatively new,
said Browning, who teaches critical care
courses. SimMan has the potential to be used
in many clinical courses, she said, and should
decrease students’ level of anxiety when they
care for a patient.
“In the real hospital situation, when the
patient goes into a critical (situation), students
tend to fall back into an observation role,” she
said. With the simulator, “the students can
attempt to problem solve and intervene and
assess and treat and critically think without
harm to the patient.”
Nursing students who have practiced with
SimMan say it provided a unique learning
experience.
Shannon Lawrence, a Biola graduate now
working at Loma Linda University Medical
Center, said SimMan gave her a chance to
practice without the pressure of doing
something wrong or hurting a patient.
“It gives you the opportunity to try things
and be comfortable and then try it again in the
workplace,” she said. — Lisa O’Neill Hill
BIOLA
Michael Musser