Simulation Training of all-time importance at Wallace

Respiratory therapist students work with a baby simulator Thursday, as if the baby was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many classes have had to change. With social distancing and stricter guidelines in place, students may not have gotten to experience what was the normal college experience.

Though the normal has changed, Wallace Community College – Dothan has continued to give students the best all around experience. For health science programs, that means continuing to work in the Health Sciences Simulator Center and Emergency Management Systems Simulation lab to provide them with the best avenue to student success.

Wallace’s journey to develop this state-of-the-art Center began in 2009 with the purchase of three human patient simulators. Since then, the Center has expanded to contain 12 different simulators, each in hospital-like cubicles. Digital recording systems allow storage, playback, and transmission of clinical scenarios taking place in the learning environment. These are used for post-simulation instruction. The Heersink Family Health Science Building opened in 2016 and houses all eight health science programs.

Associate Degree Nursing students attend to a simulator Thursday who had a severed arm.

Thursday, three programs practiced their clinical skills in a simulation environment. Respiratory Therapist, Associate Degree Nursing, and EMT had students and instructors participating in the skills training required for their programs.

“We’ve been very, very blessed and very fortunate that we have this technology and we were able to continue our instruction without interruption,” said Wendy Dubose, Wallace nursing instructor.

Emergency Management Systems students work with a simulator in the EMS simulation ambulance.

Respiratory therapist students worked with a baby simulator Thursday, as if the baby was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“I know what I’m doing in the real world, because of what I’m doing here in this SIM (simulation) center,” said Youseef Baker, Wallace respiratory therapist student. “When I am in the real world scenario, and I am working with these babies in the hospital, automatically my brain goes back to this SIM center.”