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Grant adds teaching aids for nursing students

Hannah E. Mullins School of Practical Nursing Director Christina Devlin demonstrates some of the medical procedures students can simulate with a fully-functioning electronic manikin representing a 1-year-old child. Salem Community Foundation board members toured the school’s new Salem Community Foundation Maternal-Child Health Simulation Lab Thursday at the KSU City Center. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

SALEM — Using new computerized, fully-functioning lifelike manikins, students at the Hannah E. Mullins School of Practical Nursing can learn skills and practice complex procedures like never before in a lab where even childbirth can be simulated.

“This is giving them state-of-the-art training,” HEMSPN Director Christina Devlin said.

The school which has been around for 60 years training licensed practical nurses (LPNs) secured a $72,520 grant from the Salem Community Foundation last fall to update computers, equipment and teaching materials.

On Thursday afternoon, school officials gathered with SCF representatives to cut a ribbon and dedicate the new Salem Community Foundation Maternal-Child Health Simulation Lab filled with technologically-advanced equipment purchased with money from the Ruth Harkins McKeown Fund held by SCF.

According to Devlin, students can now train using medium to high fidelity simulations in the classroom, putting the school on “the cutting edge of what you’re seeing in nursing education.”

In fact, the NOELLE birthing simulator they’ve renamed Noelle Mullins is so coveted they’ve already had other nursing schools ask about using her. The computer-controlled life-size manikin can be monitored like a real patient who’s giving birth for heart rate and blood pressure and other vitals. All the parts work like a real birth, too, right down to the baby coming out attached to a cord. They can create challenges for the students to tackle, such as a breech birth where the baby is coming bottom-first instead of head-first.

Devlin gave SCF representatives a tour of the simulation lab, showing the various manikins, including nursing babies, a 1-year-old child, a 5-year-old child, an adult they’ve named Kelly Mullins and three geriatric manikins, one which is advanced and two that are static, meaning they don’t have all the advanced features, but can still be used to simulate caring for an older adult who has problems found in older adults. Manikins can be male or female.

Some of the other equipment on the list included laptop computers, two patient monitors, a pediatric exam table with digital scale, a portable standard physician scale, a three-year Medcom video site license, basic infant radiant warmer for simulation, simulated fetal monitoring, advanced injection arm, IV arm skin and vein replacement kit, functional heart and circulatory system, magnified heart, TB testing arm deluxe set, two infusion pumps, 12 lead ECG Educator Package, testicular exam model, intra-uterine development trainer and osteoporotic bone and healthy bone model.

Devlin said the IV arms work like a real arm. The heart opens up so students can see the chambers. The manikins can be checked for vital signs.

“Most of our adult learners are hands-on,” she said.

The school previously had an older model simulation manikin and four static manikins and babies, along with an earlier version of NOELLE which was just the trunk part of the body. Now they’ve more than doubled their manikins and can do more with them to help students become proficient in the skills they need to get licensed.

In order to buy all this equipment on their own, she said the school would have had to raise tuition to the point where students might not be able to afford to go there.

“This helps them to learn with the best equipment at a price they can afford,” Devlin said.

She was thankful for the support of the Salem Community Foundation. Previous SCF awards to the school have included $35,000 in 2010 for equipment and $10,400 in 1993 for desktop computers.

“Their generosity and support is helping keep Hannah Mullins a valuable school,” she said.

SCF grants coordinator Melissa Costa said the board is grateful for the partnership and relationship with Hannah Mullins. She called the ribbon-cutting a joyous occasion for SCF, which awarded grants totaling $1,703,109 in 2016.

Hannah Mullins graduates two classes each year, in September and in March, and is currently training the 108th graduation class. The school currently has 38 students enrolled and is accredited. To learn more, visit the school website at www.hemspn.com.

According to Costa, SCF awards grants to tax-exempt organizations on a quarterly basis. Grants for financial assistance are provided through endowment funds established by generous donors and support a broad range of needs in the areas of arts and humanities, health and human services, public and community services, and education.

Grant applications and guidelines are available at www.salemcommunityfoundation.org or by calling the SCF office, 330-332-4021. The next meeting of the Grant Screening Committee to review quarterly grant applications is scheduled for June 29. All requests should be submitted by June 1.

Contributions may be made to the Salem Community Foundation Inc., P. O. Box 553, Salem, Ohio 44460 and may be earmarked for a specific program of interest to the donor.

mgreier@salemnews.net

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