Homestead Campus Opens New Nursing Simulation And Skills Center
Homestead Campus held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Leon School of Nursing Simulation and Skills Center on Jan. 26.
The 4,850 square foot state-of-the-art learning environment and training center is located in building B. It features a control room, two simulation rooms, two debriefing rooms, two skills wings and a health assessment wing.
Before it was constructed, Homestead Campus students had to drive to the Medical Campus to use their facility.
“I think that it’s exciting that in Homestead we can have a facility like this, not just for our community partners but for the people that live here,” said Homestead Campus President Oscar Loynaz.
The center has been in the works for more than two years and costs approximately $2 million.
It aims to prepare students with the principles and skills necessary to perform in real-world healthcare settings and meet the increasing demand for nurses in the workforce.
According to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the demand for registered nurses will increase by 28 percent by 2030.
In the simulation rooms, students will be able to engage in medical simulations with mannequins that can respond to pain and other stimuli. Students will learn to properly conduct injections, hook up patients to medical equipment and withdraw blood.
The mannequins will include an adult, a newborn, and a mother in labor. Six of the mannequins will be high-fidelity mannequins. They can mimic human body functions.
Students can control the mannequin’s blood pressure, temperature, and other biological metrics.
The skill wings serve as complementary learning sites where students will learn nursing skills such as placing nasal tubes and administering medication properly.
Students will receive oral and written feedback on the simulations they perform. In the health assessment wing, the students will be able to assess the vital health signs of the mannequin following a simulation.
Homestead Campus is also working on inviting medical staff from nearby health care facilities, such as Baptist Hospital and CHI Health, to the new facility to assist in medical simulations that commonly unfold in hospitals.
While the center is primarily aimed toward nursing students, the facility will also serve students training to be first responders and in the EMT program. For example, a lab in the facility will train students how to assist patients that have been the victims of a natural disaster such as a hurricane. Similarly, paramedic training will be provided.
“We have so much exciting and amazing equipment, amazing instructors, and our community deserves to have that,” Loynaz said.
The facility has a maximum capacity of 118 people. Up to four classes will be allowed to use the center at the same time. The center will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Nursing student, Anna Johnson, said the facility will have a prolonged positive impact on the Homestead community.
“Homestead [Campus] having their own simulation hospital is one of the biggest news [stories] of 2022,” Johnson said.
The opening of the center marks another feat in the development of the Homestead Campus, which is currently building a new Student Success Center and recently became the fifth campus to host an Honors College cohort.
