THE upgraded nurse training and simulation ward at Australian Catholic University\u2019s Aquinas Campus officially opened last week.<\/p>\n
Designed to look and operate as a hospital would, the classroom has 16 beds, a separate suite with its own observation and control room, sterile, drug, and pan rooms, and state-of-the-art learning equipment, including interactive mannequins.<\/p>\n
Funded by $1.9 million from the State Government, ACU vice-chancellor and president Professor Zlatko Skrbis said the facility can educate twice as many pre-clinical nurses than before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis funding helps our nursing and paramedicine students develop their skills further, becoming even more job-ready to meet the growing demands across the healthcare industry in our region and beyond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cACU is Australia\u2019s largest educator of nurses. At a time when the importance of our frontline health workforce has been so strongly highlighted, we remain committed to meeting the growing demand for nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare workers, especially to communities throughout regional Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fourth-year nursing and paramedicine student Sherlyn Hii has been learning on the ward since it became operational at the end of 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who\u2019s been out in industry, has done a lot of placement, and is already partly working at the local hospital, all of the equipment in the simulation ward is pretty close to the quality of equipment you\u2019d have in a well-furbished and busy medical or surgical ward, or even an ICU, in terms of monitoring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find the mannequins are really realistic and it\u2019s very easy to suspend your disbelief when you\u2019re in a simulation and get into a clinical mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an operator and supervisor in the control room who can make [the mannequin] talk to us, change her heart rate, oxygen saturations, the noises that she makes, and it feels like you\u2019re interacting with a real person, rather than a mannequin.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the opening event, Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison celebrated nurses\u2019 \u201cheroic\u201d everyday work, and those willing to step into the industry into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re strengthening the local workforce even more by providing world-class training opportunities to the next generation of healthcare experts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE upgraded nurse training and simulation ward at Australian Catholic University\u2019s Aquinas Campus officially opened last week. Designed to look and operate as a hospital would, the classroom has 16 beds, a separate suite with its own observation and control room, sterile, drug, and pan rooms, and state-of-the-art learning equipment, including interactive mannequins. Funded by […]<\/p>\n