Patient Care Simulation Center

CTC Nursing Center

What began with a groundbreaking ceremony in July 2009, has blossomed into a shiny landmark on the horizon of nursing education. We opened the doors to our nursing facility with the start of the spring 2011 semester. The more than 86,000-square-foot, two-story structure houses state-of-the-art equipment, classroom and lab space and a variety of simulated healthcare, emergency and hospital space to provide students a unique learning experience.

CTC spent more than $1.3 million on technology, equipment and furniture to provide students the most realistic training possible. More than $500,000 was spent on patient simulators or manikins which imitate real patient conditions and symptoms in an authentic hospital environment. CTC also added an ambulance simulator for more than $25,000 which will off nursing and EMT/paramedic students "real-world" training inside an ambulance. In addition, numerous hospital "smart beds," hospital room equipment and furnishings were purchased at a cost of nearly $200,000.

Included in the facility is an ambulance bay, two six-bed medical/surgical wards, two two-bed intensive care wards, a six-bed emergency room, a four-bed pediatric room, a two-bed Labor and Delivery room with two warmers, an operating room, and a home health room. Each room is set up to mimic an actual hospital setting to acclimate students to their future working environment.

Mission

In a commitment to excellence, the principle mission of Central Texas College Department of Nursing and Allied Health is:

1. To assist in meeting the healthcare needs of the community by providing a quality educational program that provides, promotes and acts as a resource for state of the art teaching, learning and research of basic to advance clinical skills/behaviors necessary for independent practice throughout the students' academic endeavors.
2. To collaborate with affiliated facilities to provide clinical scenarios/situations/opportunities for maintenance of competencies, enhanced quality of care and improvement of patient outcomes.

Goals

1. To mirror, anticipate or amplify real situations with guided experiences in a fully interactive way without patient risk.
2. Provide realistic crisis management without patient risk.
3. Provide basic and advanced physiology and pharmacology teaching applications.
4. Provide competency-based training.
5. Promote interprofessional and team training.
6. Promote leadership and communication training.
7. Promote critical thinking, allow mastery of patient care, provide immediate feedback and help students integrate knowledge and experience.
8. Create a social, cultural and scientific awareness that manifests itself in responsible professional practice within our communities.
9. Follow the IOM report guidelines which state: "…health care organizations and teaching institutions should participate in the development and use of simulation for training novice practitioners, problem solving,and crisis management, especially when new and potentially hazardous procedures and equipment are introduced" (Kohn, L.T., Corrigan, J.M. & Donaldson, M.S. To err is human: building a safer health system. A report of the Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academy Press (p. 179).

Policies

1. Simulation Center Lab Policy
2. Simulation Center Confidentiality Agreement
3. INASCL Standards of Best Practice: Simulation

Simulation Center Online Orientation