Kirkwood collaborates with health care professionals to bring training center to life
–by Kevin Corizzo, Kirkwood News Service
As a unique and valuable community resource, it made perfect sense for the new Healthcare Kirkwood Simulation Center to be shaped by community input.
Early in 2008, as ground was about to be broken for this new instructional facility, Kirkwood Community College hosted a number of area health care professionals for a luncheon to gather feedback for the new facility.
Representatives from area hospitals, clinics, ambulance services and colleges – among others – offered insight.
“What that really comes back to is what Kirkwood sees as its role in the community,” said Kirkwood Health Occupations Director Mike McLaughlin, who also serves as director of the new center. “This is not just the initial training of health care providers, but it’s the ongoing training and the re-training, so we really value the relationship we have with the businesses and industries in the community and we really want to include them in the decisions we make and the plan for the college. We realized very early on that if we built this space, it was not going to be just for our current students, but we would want the practicing health care professionals to take advantage of it. In order to do that, we can’t just tell them what we think they need. We needed to ask them what they saw as the benefit of a facility like this.”
For instance, one valuable piece of input came from representatives of Virginia Gay Hospital in Vinton. Since it seemed less practical for that facility to send hospital employees 40 miles or more for a full day of training, Virginia Gay representatives wondered if the training could come to them. So, in early 2010, McLaughlin expects to be able to deliver high fidelity simulation training in a soon-to-be-determined format.
But perhaps more than anything, area health professionals stressed the immense value of being able to teach vital teamwork and communication skills that will allow today’s students to be able to hit the ground running when they enter into the health care industry.
“With the Healthcare Simulation Center, if we can simulate not just the skills and techniques, but the whole atmosphere and environment of health care, then the first time they come across one of these situations in the real world, they’re going to be a little more ready for it,” McLaughlin said.
“Another thing is,” added Mercy Medical Center Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services Beth Houlahan, “if I’m a new nurse and I’ve then worked in a particular area for three or four years, but I want to transfer somewhere else, I may need to bone up on some of those skills. I could go spend some time in the education department and actually be able to demonstrate that I’m competent to be able to do some of those skills that maybe I haven’t done for a few years.”
Whether training future health care professionals or retraining those already in the industry, Kirkwood’s collaboration with experienced local health care professionals has helped to develop an instructional tool that will only enhance medical care provided in Kirkwood’s service area. The Center will be overseen by an advisory committee made up of a similar group of local professionals that will meet regularly and offer feedback on needs that could be met in the community.
“From a community standpoint, it’s outstanding,” said Center Medical Director Dr. Ryan Sundermann, St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Department medical director. “Its student and community involvement as a whole is exceptional and unsurpassed.”
“Whenever we embark on a project like this, one of the things we think about is how our projects can positively impact the community, and how we can get the community involved in the process,” McLaughlin added. “I think this is just another example of the philosophy that we have here at Kirkwood.”