NMU unveils new nursing simulation room

A couple with ties to Hancock has donated funding to Northern Michigan University to create a new resource for nursing students to practice pediatric care; a pediatric simulation room.

The room includes a diagnostic center, pediatric crash cart, and a "new-generation" mannequin of a 5-year-old child, that is wirelessly linked to a computer and can effectively mimic a real child by talking, breathing, and responding to medical treatment.

It was started off with an anonymous $8,000 seed gift, and the remainder of the funding came from Cathi and John Drake, who spend summers in Hancock. They were previously contributors to the Benda-Drake Critical Care Simulation Room at NMU. That donation was to honor an NMU nursing student who performed lifesaving CPR and emergency first aid for Cathi after she collapsed in a Houghton restaurant.

The new room will be part of a larger NMU goal: the establishment of a regional Smart Hospital, which is a collaboration with Marquette General Health System and the Upper Peninsula Health Education Corporation. It would be a virtual hospital with complete simulation technology to replicate realistic training settings for nursing and health care students across several disciplines.

John Drake says they were impressed with how their previous gift has been used, and felt it was important to keep contributing to the training quality at Northern.

"Our money has gone farther than I ever imagined and the simulations are being utilized extensively," he says. "We caught wind of the Smart Hospital idea and wanted to help because it's innovative and would be applicable to a wider audience."

The Smart Hospital is on its way, with an $85,000 rural health grant in hand, and upcoming staff training at the Mayo Clinic's simulation center. The plan is to have the virtual hospital simulate characteristics of rural health care, like lower patient volume and higher rates of transfer, says Kerri Schuiling, director of the NMU School of Nursing.

NMU hopes to draw students from across the Midwest with the new program.

"There are only three in the nation and this would be the first of its kind in the Midwest," Schuiling says.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Kerri Schuiling, NMU School of Nursing