The country is facing a nursing shortage, but schools in our region can’t keep up with the demand for nursing education.
As we reported in our first story, that’s partly because there are a limited number of clinical settings where student nurses can work with patients.
Now, to augment the clinical experience, some nursing programs are enlisting the help of a newfangled dummy, wired with smart technology.
Actually, calling these high tech mannequins “dummies” might be a bit insulting.
Forget those passive plastic torsos you’ve seen in CPR demonstrations. We’re talking about high fidelity mannequins, remotely operated by IT guys with headsets and laptops.
Larissa Miller runs the nursing simulation program at Lansing Community College. She can wax poetic about the virtues of the school’s simulated man.
“Our mannequin can shake,” she said, “which is great, we make him have a seizure right in the bed. He can sweat and it starts pouring down his face. He blinks, he breathes, he has pulses…”
He talks. And his female counterpart can even give birth. Miller has been a nurse for 19 years and she says the technology is exploding, "simulation is absolutely one of the fastest paced things I’ve ever watched in education," she said.
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