Southeast Technical College celebrates opening of Healthcare Simulation Center
Southeast Technical College students, instructors and partners celebrated the opening of the Healthcare Simulation Center this week.
While the center has been open to students since Feb. 5th, Thursday night was the first time the center was open to the public in an open house and ribbon-cutting.
The center functions as a mini hospital inside a 33,000 square foot renovation of the former Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship building at STC. It came at an estimated cost of $10 million.
Funding for the center came in three gifts from Avera Health, Sanford Health and Forward Sioux Falls, totaling $5.6 million, as well as a $4.5 million appropriation by the 2022 South Dakota Legislature as outlined in Senate Bill 61.
More: Southeast Technical College announces $10M in funding for new healthcare simulation center
Avera and Sanford’s gifts helped remodel the facility. Donations from Forward Sioux Falls and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation provided ongoing financial support to help STC work toward ownership of the facility. And the $4.5 million from the state helped purchase all of the simulation equipment.
Several programs are housed in the center, and many of the college’s health care programs and classes will overlap into the space. Simulations inside the building include cardiac cath labs, intensive care units, respiratory therapy, surgical technology and suites, medical laboratory technology, cardiac sonography, phlebotomy, nursing, patient care and law enforcement.
“And maybe most important, a coffee bar,” STC President Bob Griggs joked Thursday night.
Griggs added that the center means health care students can learn using simulation, experiential hands-on learning, taking care of simulated patients in realistic environments. It allows students to develop critical, necessary skills before they provide care to real patients, he said.
The main level of the center includes an emergency room simulation, cardiac catheterization lab, patient care space, skills lab, operating room, 36-seat Sanford Classroom, Avera commons, administrative offices, debriefing rooms, supplies and a conference room.
The lower level of the center includes a medical laboratory, skills labs, commons space, classrooms, a sterilization space, laundry and offices.
More: Where are Sioux Falls-area schools set to grow in 2023? Here are the construction projects
Simulations that have helped students practice with real-life scenarios so far include a gunshot victim who required resuscitation and abdominal surgery, labor and delivery simulations, and mental health simulators. There are viewing rooms for instructors to control and observe the simulations, and opportunities for students to question doctors’ orders.
“It’s a safe place to make mistakes,” nursing instructor Traci Grogan said.
Advanced simulation technology in the building include high-fidelity simulation manikins, virtual reality systems, interactive learning modules, and student Aidan Sanchez’s favorite: a chemical analyzer in the medical laboratory.
“The simulation building has all the hospital equipment,” Sanchez said. “I’m really excited for when we can put something together” to simulate healthcare across all the programs, he added.
Second-year nursing student Amanda Polzen graduates in May and said she’s enjoyed working in the simulation center because “it’s as realistic as it can be.”
Polzen, who wants to work with cystic fibrosis patients, be a nurse chaplain or work in family medicine, said she started at STC in the former simulator space which was a little more cramped. She said she likes that there are viewing rooms to watch and take notes, and appreciates getting positive feedback or constructive criticism from her instructors and peers.
Nilab Samad, who is in the licensed practical nurse to registered nurse program, said she’s found the center to be “lovely” and likes that it gives her a background more like a hospital situation would be with lots of real time that sets her up to go into the field.
With the center set up much like a hospital, one might wonder whether the space could be used for real health care scenarios in the future, rather than just simulations. Deborah Letcher, associate dean of curriculum and instruction, said “anything’s possible.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Healthcare Simulation Center officially open at Southeast Tech
