A Partnership for Excellence
We have all been told practice makes perfect and, while experts debate the number of hours necessary or the type of practice that is best, one thing is clear: training improves performance. Iowa Central Community College and Trinity Regional Medical Center are partnering to provide our community with the optimum facility to safeguard the health of our residents and address trends that could negatively impact our health care workforce. The goal is to create a solution for the lack of clinical space which limits the number of students we can educate in the health care field at a time when the shortage of nurses is becoming a critical issue.
In June 2014 Iowa Central Community College received an $832,292 grant to purchase simulation mannequins, the supplies necessary to run them and salaries for lab personnel. The missing piece was space for a 10,000-square-foot simulation teaching center.
A comprehensive plan has been developed to expand/renovate space at Trinity Regional Medical Center. The space will provide educational opportunities for students, practicing health professionals, nursing home and long-term care providers, and emergency personnel and volunteers who serve our region. This unique collaboration advances efforts toward the overarching goal of delivering the best health care services to the region.
How Does a Simulation Center Work?
Time spent in a health care simulation center can be compared to time spent by pilots in a flight simulation center - this experience provides health care workers the opportunity to master competencies or perform high risk procedures they do not often see, without the life and death consequences.
The simulation center at Trinity Regional Medical Center will have state-of-the-art simulator mannequins that will operate wirelessly and can be adapted to different settings to simulate real life scenarios. Each lab will have audio visual equipment (cameras and computer software linked to the simulators) for observation, recording and review of the simulated scenarios. This will allow for classroom debriefing and an opportunity for students to watch the video and see and discuss good decisions as well as decisions that could have been better. In addition, students will use a simulated electronic medical record for a realistic charting experience. Four hours in a simulator lab are equal to eight hours in a hospital setting. This experience provides students with important skills in a controlled environment to build confidence and experience. Although the simulation center will utilize most of the current floor plan design, an estimated budget of $750,000 is needed to complete renovations. In addition, an estimated $150,000 is necessary to provide the simulation center with the required audio visual equipment.
This is a $900,000 project and you are invited to help Iowa Central Community College and UnityPoint Health - Fort Dodge achieve an important challenge. Your involvement in this project will help us deliver the best health care workforce throughout the region we serve. This remarkable teaching tool will assist in training our region's health care provider population-from physicians and nurses to first responders and volunteers.
Please give our project some thought and consider how you might be able to help us reach our goal. Your investment will help ensure that practice makes perfect and that North Central Iowa will continue to provide quality health care and a skilled workforce leading into the next decade.
Iowa Central Community College Foundation and Trinity Foundation are working jointly to raise the needed funds for the simulation center. Several naming opportunities are available and donations of all sizes are currently being accepted. Several Service Clubs, community businesses and individuals have already shown their support and we invite you to join innovative and exciting venture.
To make a gift or for more information on this project, please contact Carol Grannon at (515) 574-6794 or carol.grannon@unitypoint.org.
Thank you for your consideration.