Nursing students practice patient care on programmable mannequins.
Jessica Orozco | The Lima News
LIMA — Rhodes State College in Lima combines technology and innovative thinking to educate students in six different healthcare fields.
The Borra Center for Health Science houses EMS, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, respiratory care and surgical technology programs. Students learn by doing, using 3D simulation, labs, clinical simulation and more. Some of these resources are taken outside the facility via the mobile lab, which can be driven to a location to share the technology and learning with others.
Paul Siebeneck, director of marketing and public relations for the school, said 575 students take at least one class at the Borra Center. She said Mondays are busiest, with more than 260 students in the building.
Melissa Harvey, chair of nursing, said she teaches a capstone course for nursing students where the class regularly uses a nine-panel collobarative video wall connected to the Anatomage, which allows students to virtually dissect the human body, viewing the smallest of details.
Bonnie Edgin, building services coordinator, said Rhodes State was the first school in the country to combine the two technologies. Students can use them to view a certain part of the body and take notes that can be shared with anyone.
Harvey said administators from universities across the country have visited the Borra Center to view the technology its students use to implement similar resources at their own schools.
Ann Best, assistant dean of health sciences and public service, said students “lose themselves” in activities using this and other technology, and they develop improved critical thinking skills.
“They’re so engaged that it’s just deeper learning,” Best said.
Best said students use a lab set up like a physical or occupational therapy clinic to get hands-on experience similar to that of an actual clinic. She said she hopes to offer free therapy for people willing to be treated by students in two to five years.
The clinic also offers a “home apartment” set up like a typical apartment, which patients will stay in for a night to demonstrate that they can care for themselves by cooking dinner, doing laundry, showering and performing other daily activities on their own, Best said. She said the apartment also allows students to practice helping people get in and out of bed or the shower.
The facility also has a nursing lab with real equipment and mannequin patients that move and respond to treatment, Edgin said. If the wrong medication is given, the patient will “die” and the student will have to start over.
Similar resources are available at the respiratory lab, which also contains a disposable video laryngoscope. Students learn to intubate the classic way using a metal laryngoscope, but can also view the inside of the throat through a screen and intubate quicker and easier using the video tool.
Joel Harris, health sciences technology and simulation coordinator, said students learn obstetrics and gynecology through the “birth” of a mannequin infant from its mannequin mother. He said he can simulate an emergency and make the mannequin baby turn blue, struggle to breathe on its own and more until students administer the proper treatment.
The college recently added a surgical technology program, where students learn sterilization techniques and other important parts of surgery. Edgin said seven people are in the program right now, and they all have jobs lined up for after graduation.
Best said all of these programs reduce anxieties about attending clinicals at hospitals.
Edgin said EMS students can practice caring for patients trapped in a car using a cage shaped like one. They also practice trauma situations in the back of an ambulance on hydraulics to simulate driving.
Rhodes State’s technology is not limited to the Borra Center.
Danielle Banks, project director for a grant given to the college, said the mobile lab, also known as Rhodes in Motion, provides medical education to people where they are. She said the lab, which is inside of a large motor coach, is often taken to local schools for more hands-on education and to inspire interest in the medical field.
The funding, the $1.7 million Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary Opportunity grant, was awarded to Rhodes State in August 2022 to increase learning opportunities and expand remote learning.
Nathan Ankerman, mobile lab technician, said almost 3,000 people have experienced the mobile lab, and he has driven it more than 3,000 miles to reach students.
The youngest group to be taught in the lab was kindergartners, Banks said. The technology can be adapted to teach a range of grades and skill levels.
Banks said the lab features zSpace virtual reality computers that allow students to view parts of the body in 3D without headsets. In particular, they can be used to compare a healthy heart to one in cardiac arrest through all angles. The computers can be used to dissect muscles and reach the skeletal system, and view parts of the body in great detail, Banks said.
Students can watch a teacher’s Powerpoint presentation on monitors in the lab or, if they are outside the bus, they can watch it on a projector.
The lab also has a screen adapted from the Anatomage 3D anatomy table that students can use to dissect a virtual cadaver. Banks said the program can be used to look at only the circulatory system, which is impossible on a real cadaver.
Banks said the lab also features a large MultiTaction screen, a large touch screen that can be used to take notes, look up information and work collaboratively. Students can use the split-screen to work at the same time.
Banks said the team hopes to bring the mobile lab to the workforce, being used for recertification for nurses or other medical professionals.
Ankerman said the lab can also be a useful tool in certifying firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police officers in CPR and other first aid.
Banks said she loves working with students but is excited to expand the college’s resources to reach more people.
“People come up with different ideas to use (the mobile lab) every day, and we run with it,” Banks said. “We might as well shoot for the stars if we can, because why not? We have the ability, we have the technology. We adapt every day to something new.”
CELEBRATING OUR SPIRIT
Plenty of foods, items and ideas are created right here in the Lima region. Celebrating Our Spirit looks at those organizations that make the area such a vibrant place to live, work and play.
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