Your College is teaching healthcare through real-world applications

By Rebecca Bell
Dean of Community Relations & Special Events

When the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College was built in spring 2012, it was seen as a collaborative learning environment for Midland College students, Texas Tech University Health Sciences students and Midland Memorial Hospital employees; however, other groups—from those who are just beginning to think about a career in healthcare to those who are currently practitioners—are also participating in classes at the Center.

On Thursday, July 26, Permian Basin high school students participated in various medical training scenarios at the center, including a simulated exercise involving a patient having a seizure. The high school program entitled Youth Health Services Corps is a partnership between the Area Health Education Consortium and Midland Memorial Hospital. Students have an opportunity to attend extracurricular classes, seminars and workshops, as well as shadow healthcare professionals.

During the simulation exercise, Center Director Lea Keesee programmed one of the Center’s sophisticated manikins to exhibit neurological symptoms, and the high school students made bedside observations and reported the symptoms to Keesee and Kim Kincaid, executive secretary of PCS Administration for Midland Memorial Hospital. After going through the exercise, students were given the opportunity to “debrief” with Keesee in one of the Center’s conference areas.

AeroCare flight paramedic Joe Harper (left) and AeroCare flight nurse Rick Moore (right) assess adult medical patient during simulation exercise at the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College.

“This was really awesome!” said 15-year-old Amanda Bell, a sophomore at Greenwood High School. “The manikin patients were so life-like—their eyes blinked, they breathed, and they spoke to us about how they were feeling. One of our manikin patients even started to shake his left hand and arm when he was seizing. Going through the simulated exercise helped me realize the importance of making sound assessments. I think this experience will help me properly react when I am put in similar situations in real life. My goal is to be a medical doctor, so this was a great learning experience for me.”

Youth Health Services Corps:  Standing from left to right are Youth Health Services Corps students and mentors:  Yara Carrasco, Midland High School 12th-grader; Alexandra Rodriguez, Odessa High School 10th-grader; Amanda Bell, Greenwood High School 10th-grader; Kim Kincaid, Midland Memorial Hospital executive secretary of PCS Administration; and Lea Keesee, director of the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College

More recently, on October 8 and 9, nurses and paramedics employed by AeroCare Air Ambulance Service were at the facility for healthcare training relating to air transportation. AeroCare is a nationally recognized and accredited provider of worldwide air ambulance and medevac services. The organizatiohn’a air medical transport services also include commercial flight nurse escorts throughout the world.

Keesee said, “We were delighted to have AeroCare use our facilities for this training. The sophisticated manikins and equipment will enable the nurses to get hands-on training in a simulated environment that is as close as you can get to the ‘real thing.’”

The AeroCare training consisted of several scenarios, such as a pediatric burn case, where a manikin was programmed to simulate a 2-year-old child who had third-degree burns to both legs, his left arm and face. Working in the center’s computerized control room, Keesee manipulated the vital signs of the manikin so that AeroCare nurses and paramedics could intubate the manikin and administer drugs for transporting to the hospital.

Rick Moore, flight nurse, from left, Kenneth Hawley, EMT and flight paramedic, and Joe Harper, EMT flight paramedic, perform intubation on manikin designed to simulate pediatric burn patient.

Another simulation exercise was taken from a real-life situation that AeroCare had encountered in Big Bend National Park several years ago. The adult patient was suffering from heart abnormalities. Keesee programmed the manikin’s vital signs, and AeroCare administrators were in the control room speaking through a microphone as if they were the patient. Paramedics and nurses assessed the patient and successfully prepared the manikin for air transport.

From left, Dannie Chandler, technician, and Lea Keesee, center director, manipulate manikin vital signs in one of the high-tech control rooms of the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College.

This was not the first time for some of the AeroCare employees to be in the building. Before being renovated into the state-of-the-art SimLife Center last spring, the building housed Midland College’s registered nurse and EMT/paramedic classrooms and labs. AeroCare flight nurse Rick Moore, RN, BSN, started his medical training at Midland College in the same building. He later received his bachelor’s degree in nursing from Texas Tech, and is now working on a master’s degree from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Gary Valeriano, AeroCare program director, said he took paramedic classes in the building.

Both Moore and Valeriano agreed that the high tech transformation of the building was truly amazing.

Moore said, “Having these simulated exercises is great practice. We can see how patients react in a controlled environment, and that makes us much better practitioners.”