STAR Center gives a hands-on experience
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Robin Campbell, left, a registered nurse, helps Brazil Scott, 17, of Peabody High School, check vital signs of a mannequin at the STAR Center at the West Penn School of Nursing. -
Clarice Burse, front center, 17, of Peabody High School gives a tour of the STAR Center to Doug Keil, left, Brazil Scott and Mary Sasson last June. -
Clarice Burse, left, 17, of Peabody High School discusses the STAR Center at the West Penn School of Nursing with Mary Sasson, second from left, Alison Winters and Lauren Schieb last June after she graduated from the STAR Allied Health Leadership Training Academy. The academy is designed to prepare students for future health care studies and jobs.
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At the STAR Center at West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, aspiring health care professionals can do everything they might do in a conventional hospital wing -- except kill the patient.
STAR is an acronym for Simulation, Teaching and Academic Research. It replicates an actual clinical hospital unit where students get hands-on experience in dealing with patients and in responding to emergencies. The only real difference is the patients at the STAR Center are computerized robotic mannequins.
These are no ordinary mannequins. They mimic the physiology of human patients and can be programmed to display a wide range of health conditions. The latest SimMan 3G can cry, bleed, convulse and suffer cardiac arrest. SimMan is so realistic that a student had to be consoled after accidentally "killing" him.
In addition to four nursing bays, the STAR Center has a family birthing/neonatal center, two intensive care units, and a fully equipped ambulance. There is also a mobile STAR van that goes to high school job fairs and to other West Penn facilities.
The STAR Center was established in 2007, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Highmark Foundation. Subsequent grants have made the facility worth about $2 million, said Donamarie Wilfong, who has a doctorate in nursing and is the director of clinical education.
The most recent grant, of $106,850 from Highmark last month, will fund a two-year partnership between the STAR Center and Chatham University's Doctor of Physical Therapy and Master Physician Assistant Studies programs.
The STAR Center offers 70 different courses, and is being urged to create more.
"Each week we get several requests for more classes," Ms. Wilfong said.
"We train all health care professionals -- cleaning staff, nurses, residents, medical students, practicing physicians," she said. But the STAR Center is used most by nursing students.
"The whole purpose is to make sure that when they get to the hospital, they don't make any mistakes," Ms. Wilfong said.
Before a student can go to the real hospital, he or she must pass a simulation test at the STAR Center.
Although the start-up costs were large, STAR soon will be saving the West Penn Allegheny family of hospitals money, Ms. Wilfong said.
"STAR makes it possible to orient new nurses to the hospital without taking so much time of skilled nurses to show them around."
And because the new nurses will be more skilled when they get to the hospital, they'll make fewer errors, she said.
First Published March 14, 2011 12:00 am
