Appropriations from a federal agency have provided the Central Wyoming College nursing program and practicing health professionals in the community enhanced learning tools.
The college has completed a Clinical Simulation Lab where sophisticated mannequins can replicate any type of illness or medical disorder a student or practicing nurse in a rural setting may not normally encounter.
While the clinical simulation lab enhances a student's clinical experience, it may also make it possible to expand the number of students CWC can admit into the program, Nursing Director Kathy Wells said, though additional instruction space and science laboratories are needed to make it possible to admit more nursing students.
The lab gives students the flexibility of dealing with particular illnesses or traumas at the time they are being taught as the simulators can respond like a real patient and can be programmed to suffer any medical malady.
The program's graduates will be much more marketable to hospitals and other acute care facilities when employers know they have been trained to deal with trauma and illnesses not normally seen at rural clinic sites.
The Clinical Simulation Lab can also be used by practicing health care professionals for continuing education and refresher courses that are required by law.
