Hillcrest Foundation contributes $100,000 to state-of-the-art birthing simulation technology
By J. Christian Messa
MARCH 6, 2006--UTMB students will be able to use state-of-the-art manikins to practice delivering babies, thanks to a $100,000 contribution from the Hillcrest Foundation. Matched by UTMB, the grant will cover five maternal and neonatal birthing simulators, two “preemie” baby simulators and associated equipment to support the training of medical and nursing students in obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics. Medical residents seeking to hone their clinical skills will also benefit from the simulators, which create a high-realism, low-risk learning environment for safe and effective training in virtually every aspect of the birthing experience.
The simulators will offer realistic birthing scenarios, including standard deliveries, cesarean sections and complicated deliveries using forceps and other devices. Students may also practice administering medications intravenously to mothers and infants as well as performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on newborns. Computer software can mimic physiological conditions within both adult and infant manikins, providing students experience in interpreting breathing, heartbeat and various other vital signs important in critical care situations. Instructors will be able to monitor their students’ performance and, through computer technology, create delivery-related complications within the manikins to help future caregivers develop their skills. By the time they encounter actual patients, these students will have logged hundreds of hours practicing delivering babies, in situations both routine and difficult.
The birthing simulators will reside in the Hillcrest Foundation Birthing Simulation Suite in UTMB’s Nursing and Allied Health Sciences Building. Prior to the Hillcrest Foundation contribution, UTMB’s School of Nursing possessed the institution’s lone birthing simulator.
In 2003, the Hillcrest Foundation contributed to several other high-tech manikins at UTMB that can represent patients suffering various health problems, ranging in severity from heart murmurs to collapsed lungs. These virtual patients complement the university’s Standardized Patient Program, which features specially trained actors portraying patients with various illnesses for students to diagnose. The program--one of the first of its kind in the United States--permits UTMB students to interact with “patients” in their first weeks of training. These future health care professionals learn how to conduct physical exams and provide health counseling as they begin to master the nuances of treating each patient with respect and compassion.
Since the actors in the Standardized Patient Program cannot duplicate the physical symptoms associated with illnesses they pretend to have, students rely on virtual-patient manikins to exhibit those symptoms. Such simulators have contributed significantly to UTMB’s educational environment. These and other simulated patient encounters provide numerous opportunities for UTMB’s medical, nursing and allied health students to practice developing assessment and clinical decision-making skills earlier in their academic careers.
“We believe that early exposure to clinical decision-making and a focus on evidence-based medicine helps us maintain a culture of continuous improvement in our health sciences curricula,” said UTMB President John D. Stobo. “We are grateful for the Hillcrest Foundation’s continued support of our educational mission. The foundation’s investment in the birthing simulators will help ensure that students are well-prepared as they transition from the classroom to providing hands-on care to expectant mothers and their newborns.”
Based in Dallas, the Hillcrest Foundation is dedicated to supporting organizations that advance education, promote health and strive to eradicate poverty in Texas. The foundation was established in 1957 by Mrs. W.W. Caruth Sr., a member of a pioneer family that settled in the Dallas area in 1848. Successive generations of the Caruth family bought land, owned and managed ranches and farms, and later developed properties around Dallas.