New simulation center trains students in healthcare industry at Mississippi College

CLINTON, Miss. (WLBT) – Physician Assistants play a pivotal role in hospitals and health care clinics in Mississippi.

We see the importance of quality medical professionals, especially during the pandemic.

Mississippi College is making sure it produces the best and the brightest in the field with the help of a new state-of-the-art simulation center.

He blinks, coughs, cries, and shakes, yet he is not a human.

It’s a 3G Plus advanced patient simulator, nicknamed “Billy Ruben.”

The medical mannequin is the centerpiece of Mississippi College’s new state-of-the-art Physician Assistant Program Medical Simulation Center. It’s located on the first floor of the Baptist Healthplex in Clinton.

“This is something that we had envisioned for some time,” said Dr. Steve Martin, Program Director in the Department Chairmen Professor of Physician Assistant Studies. “We do have access to a state-of-the-art simulation center at UMMC, but during COVID, they shut down. They didn’t allow students on campus, so we lost that resource, and we wanted to develop our own center.”

The goal is to use this new center to train dozens of students each semester to become effective on the job and help provide quality health care, and save lives.

“He has complete lung sounds, heart sounds, and abdominal sounds,” said Dr. Martin. “Students can start IVs. We are able to video all of it. We have cameras in the back, in the front and were able to take detailed videos of exactly what happened and when. We can use that to teach the students how they reacted, what they did properly, and what they may not have done as well, and they can practice again.”

You are probably wondering how the mannequin has these capabilities.

Faculty instructors and a simulation technician sit in this control room to manipulate the mannequin.

PA students can prepare for medical and patient encounters they could face.

Also, students can work together effectively as a team and focus on problem-solving.

“For example, we might disconnect the oxygen discreetly and see how long it takes them to recognize the patient’s O2 sats (Oxygen saturation) has dropped and be able to troubleshoot that and figure it out. Maybe a kink in the IV line, just a number of things, and work together as a team. This is just another way of elevating our game, so they can be the best that they can be.”

Mississippi College also plans to collaborate with nursing students, so they can work with PA Students in this new center to train.

The college also points out that at least half of the students that graduate from the program stay and work in the state.

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