With fundraising completed in 2020- 2021, College of Health Sciences students and local community healthcare organizations are looking forward to the completion of ESU’s new Community Health Education and Simulation Center that will be built in the DeNike Center for Human Services. Construction is slated to begin in May 2022.
Major donors to the $850,000 campaign are the R. Dale and Frances Hughes Foundation, Lehigh Valley Health Network – Pocono, the Lester G. Abeloff Foundation, and the State of Pennsylvania through two grants awarded by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
The center will offer state-of-the art simulation and inter-professional practice opportunities for students in the College of Health Sciences and local community healthcare organizations
“We are very excited to see this project move forward, the culmination of many years of planning, fundraising, and advocacy on the part of the College of Health Sciences faculty and staff and the ESU Foundation,” said Denise Seigart, Ph.D., MS, RN, dean of ESU’s College of Health Sciences. “We expect this center to enhance our already very high quality healthcare programs and the competence of professionals in the local area, as well.”
Seigart said the center will have two ICU beds with high fidelity manikins, a flexible operating room space, a nursing station, an observation and conference room, and a high tech control room where faculty will be able to monitor multiple simulations.
“Students will be challenged during these simulation sessions to problem solve and practice situations they are likely to encounter in their clinical settings with live patients. These can include cardiac arrests, strokes, respiratory arrest, disseminated infections, postpartum hemorrhage, and many other situations,” said Seigart.
Laura Waters, Ph.D., RN, associate professor and chair of the Department of Nursing, says the new Sim Center, as it’s called, is a highly anticipated addition to the nursing program that will allow ESU students to experience a multitude of patient conditions and applications of interventions that are based on evidence-based practice.
“Simulation labs and the related patient focused activities are designed to provide immersive learning experiences to educate the nurse of the future,” Waters said.
Learning achieved through this type of simulation activity has been shown via research to be extensive and well retained by students and healthcare professionals,” added Seigart.
“We will have many people to thank for this new center and will plan to have a grand opening in the fall of 2022.”