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March 17, 2008
Local leaders witnessed a simulated patient in respiratory distress at a recent demonstration by Edgecombe Community College instructors and students. The simulated patient, called SimMan, mimicked the symptoms of a 50-year-old man with asthma and a cold whose condition quickly worsened. Five ECC nursing and respiratory therapy students, under the watchful eyes of their instructors, worked together until they were able to stabilize the patient. The simulated patient technology will be central to teaching and learning in the college’s new Community Health Education Center planned for the Rocky Mount campus. The demonstration was part of a breakfast meeting held March 17 at Heritage Hospital to inform legislative and local officials and area business leaders on the initiative and to give them an opportunity to observe high tech teaching firsthand. Among those attending were N.C. representatives Joe Tolson and Jean Farmer-Butterfield; Betty Jo Shepheard, a representative from U.S. Senator Richard Burr’s office; Rocky Mount Mayor David Combs and other Rocky Mount officials; Edgecombe County Manager Lorenzo Carmon; Edgecombe County commissioners; and members of the ECC Board of Trustees. The four-story center will house six of the college’s ten allied health programs as well as a primary care clinic, a mental health and rehab unit, a simulated hospital, and possibly a dental clinic. The center also will provide an accessible, central location for at-risk county residents to receive health information, screenings, and limited treatments. The simulated hospital will comprise the 3rd and 4th floors of the center, and this environment lies at the heart of what will make teaching and learning unique in eastern North Carolina. The hospital will be equipped with interactive mannequins - SimMan and SimBaby - that will enable students to perform advanced life support skills. Currently, students stand by and watch clinicians perform these skills on live patients. In the new simulated hospital, they will be able to work in teams to assess and treat the simulated patients. “Students are the stars of this teaching modality,” said Ralph Webb, chair of respiratory therapy. “This will be a tremendous learning tool for our students.” ECC President Dr. Deborah Lamm explained that Catawba Community College in western N.C. is the only other community college in the state that is developing a simulated hospital environment for teaching and learning. Eight nearby community colleges have expressed an interest in partnering with ECC in the simulated hospital, Dr. Lamm said, as well as University Health Systems, including Heritage Hospital. “The facility will be available to community colleges and four-year colleges and universities in eastern North Carolina as well as other health-related agencies, such as mental health agencies, health departments, and medical providers,” she said. “Ideally, the hospital will be operational 24/7.” “If we do anything less for our students, we are selling them short,” observed Rep. Joe Tolson. “We need this facility, and I am excited about the project.” The college has received a $1 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation toward the $8.8 million project. In addition, last year the state legislature provided a $300,000 planning grant. Plans are under way to complete the facility design by fall 2008. Groundbreaking
for the project is estimated to begin in August 2009, with the facility
fully operational in 2010.
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