Practice Patient Makes Perfect

By Robin Roger, March 2, 2021
Students to get hands-on experience in new patient simulation lab.
students with patient care manikin

In a marketing photo provided by CAE Healthcare, who makes the manikins, non-IC students work with a high fidelity human patient simulation manikin.

(Photo by Laura Rodriguez Rodriguez)

In a marketing photo provided by CAE Healthcare, who makes the manikins, non-IC students work with a high fidelity human patient simulation manikin.

(Photo by Laura Rodriguez Rodriguez)

This spring, the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance (HSHP) at Ithaca College is creating a new patient simulation lab, which will allow students to get hands-on experience with two state-of-the-art, high fidelity human patient simulation manikins.

“I am thrilled to add this learning laboratory to what we have to offer all of the students studying in the health professions,” said Linda Petrosino '77, MS '78, dean of HSHP. “The patient simulation lab will allow our students to learn in a simulation-enhanced, inter-professional, team-based environment conducive to supporting critical thinking and clinical decision making.”   

The school received a $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations to build the lab in the Center for Health Sciences. It will be set up like a real hospital room, and the manikins can be preprogrammed with various lifelike scenarios. Students will be able to perform a number of diagnostics on the manikins, including monitoring their breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. Students can even get electrocardiogram (ECG) readings and place intravenous lines. There are also add-ons available, like wound care kits.

“Students will have to react like they would with a real patient but in a low-stakes environment.”

Samantha Brown, assistant professor and assistant director of clinical education in the Department of Physical Therapy

The lab, which is scheduled to open in fall 2021, will provide a much more life-like experience than a typical classroom simulation.

“Students will have to react like they would with a real patient but in a low-stakes environment,” said Samantha Brown, assistant professor and assistant director of clinical education in the Department of Physical Therapy. Brown and Chris Hummel, MS ’00, clinical professor and chair of the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training, are co-directors of the simulation lab project and the lead faculty on the grant proposal to the Hearst Foundation.

“We’re not giving them the information,” Hummel added. “It's not us telling them and then them just reciting back to us, ‘If their blood pressure is this, this is what we would do.’ They have to find it and figure it out on their own.”

About the Manikins

The manikins are:

  • 5 feet, 4 inches tall
  • 50 pounds
  • Portable (they have rechargeable batteries)
  • Wireless (they also come with their own app and learning management tool)

They can:

  • Breathe
  • Have vital signs
  • Have physiological responses (such as pupil dilation, rapid changes in vital signs)
  • Open and close their eyes
  • Talk

All students in HSHP will have the opportunity to use the lab to acquire clinical skills and work on problem-solving and teamwork, but it will be used most frequently by upper level health care professions students, as well as students participating in interprofessional education activities.

“It’s becoming more and more necessary, and it’s hard to simulate some things in the classroom,” said Hummel. “Especially with COVID, it can be more challenging to get that hands-on experience.”

Students would get to practice in the relatively low-pressure environment of the lab before embarking on their external internships. It would give them the opportunity to act out real-life scenarios without the stress, so when they participate in their first internship, they feel confident and well prepared. 

“It provides a hands-on experience that’s risk-free, but still very intense. It also provides the opportunity for them to go back and reflect on the experience.”

Chris Hummel, MS '00, clinical professor and chair of the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training

“It provides a hands-on experience that’s risk-free, but still very intense,” Hummel said. “It also provides the opportunity for them to go back and reflect on the experience.”

In addition to the manikins and other lab equipment, the grant covers the cost of a learning management system that allows faculty members to record students’ interactions with the manikins, store the video online and debrief simulation videos with the students providing valuable feedback. Students will also be able to debrief with their peers after a simulation and give and receive peer feedback. Research has shown that learning to provide real-time feedback can be a valuable learning tool for students.

“This is helpful for student learning. Even for identifying nonverbal cues, body language, making eye contact with the patient, or doing something else while you're talking to a patient. To be able to see what that looks like to the patient or to someone outside of the situation is a valuable learning experience,” Brown said. “We can correct them that all we want, but until they see it, they don't realize how much it impacts the care that they're giving.”

The manikins have been purchased and the lab space will be developed this spring.

“The Hearst Foundation has been a proud supporter of Ithaca College since it established an endowed scholarship fund for underrepresented students in 1996,” said George Irish, the Eastern Director of the Hearst Foundations. “We are pleased to provide this new grant to establish a simulation lab, complete with high fidelity manikins and learning management system, to train future health professionals to successfully respond to critical medical needs, including those affected by COVID-19 and emerging public health issues.”