TCCâ€™s High Tech Teaching Mannequins

Medical nurses are in high demand across the state and Tulsa Community College responded to the demands and has expanded their nursing program. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Omar Villafranca says Vision

Thursday, January 25th 2007, 4:28 pm

By: News On 6

Medical nurses are in high demand across the state and Tulsa Community College responded to the demands and has expanded their nursing program.

News on 6 reporter Omar Villafranca says Vision 2025 money paid for a new TCC facility and now more nursing students are filling the classrooms at TCCâ€™s Southeast campus.

Everything in TCCâ€™s lab looks and sounds like a real hospital. To the nursing students at TCC, it's a classroom. They're trying to figure out why ANNIE doesn't feel so good. Even though ANNIE can't talk to the students, she's no dummy.

TCCâ€™s Cheryl Feken-Dixon RN-MSN says "the mannequins are a medium fidelity, so they are able to have the heart sounds, breath sounds, bowel sounds, so when the students are coming in to do their scenario, it is as life like as possible, short of them being in a real clinical at the hospital."

The professor made ANNIE sick, on purpose, with the help of a computer program. By checking her vital signs, students will have to learn what's wrong with the patient and how to properly treat it. After checking the ID bracelet, you'll see that ANNIE is Imagene Hurt.

Students can check her pulse, they can check her blood pressure, and their professor can make her react to challenge students. â€œIt's almost like a real person. It just doesn't talk, but it moans and groans with pain, it has heartbeats, lung sounds, breath sounds, it has everything," says TCC nursing student Tanuja Parmar.

Cheryl Feken-Dixon RN-MSN says "we can put fake blood in the drains so that it looks real for the student so it's not just Play dough, it's real." Any that can happen to real humans, can happen to the mannequins. Broken bones, trouble breathing, whatever it is, ANNIE's keeping a straight face and not telling. â€œChest pains, diabetes, surgery, home health, whatever you want, we can pretty much do it."

So TCCâ€™s future nurses will have the best training when they work on real patients, in real pain. Luckily, f students make a mistake, no one dies. "If you hurt the mannequin, I can revive it. It's good to go for the next set of students."

About $8 million in Vision 2025 money built the facility at TCC's Southeast campus. The college has eight ANNIE's, costing about $8,000 each. They also have three SIM Men mannequins, which cost about $40,000 each. TCC paid for the mannequins with money donated by private citizens and hospitals.