Courtesy Nicolet College

Nicolet College’s family of patient simulators used to train health care students recently grew by three with the addition of high-tech female birthing simulators named Victoria and her newborns Tory and Vicki.

“It’s always exciting to welcome new members into the family and this time is no different,” said Nicolet Nursing Instructor Dilya St. Louis.

“Victoria and her babies will significantly expand the skills students learn related to obstetrics and give them the experience of delivering a newborn baby from a pregnant mother. When they graduate, they’ll then take these skills out into Northwoods communities as they begin and advance in their health care careers.”

Nicolet first began purchasing patient simulators a dozen years ago. These included an adult male, a young boy for pediatric education, and a several-month-old infant.

“Like everything the technology advances so quickly,” St. Louis said. “We saw a need to bring in these next-generation level simulators and expand our training experiences in OB and pediatrics.”

The mother-daughter simulators can be programmed to give students a wide variety of birthing situations, everything from a normal delivery to ones that present with complications.

Features include the ability to recognize and react to medications, respond to intubation and CPR, produce normal and abnormal heart and lung sounds, and present different respiratory and oxygen-level scenarios, along with other advanced features.

“It really does give them hands-on, near-real-world experience and bridges the gap between the theory students learn from a textbook theory and what they’ll experience when treating actual patients,” St. Louis said.

For more information about Nicolet’s Nursing program or any other Health Occupations program, visit nicoletcollege.edu or call 715-365-4933.