By Lindsey Schibelhut, Staff Reporter.
Have you ever been sick? When you’ve gone to the hospital you may have had a Delta College nursing graduate treat you. Delta’s nursing department held a special unveiling ceremony of the new renovations and patient simulation labs in the F-Wing to celebrate 50 years of the nursing program on Sunday, Oct. 26. At the open house, memorabilia from past decades of nursing could be viewed, including the nursing uniform from 1964 and former nursing graduating classes photos. The event was free and open to the public.
Delta’s nursing program started in 1961 with only 13 students enrolled at the time. As the years passed the program grew and by Dec. 1967 Delta had over 79 enrolled students. In 2014 Delta’s nursing program now has over 300 enrolled nursing students.
The construction of the original Allied Health Building at Delta began in 1975 on a budget of $7 million. Within the original building, there was a simulated hospital wing, six hospital rooms and a nursing station. The newly renovated Allied Health Building cost $20 million and has a variety of new technological advancements to help current students prepare for the nursing field.
Some of the new equipment that will help nursing students are the high tech mannequins in the simulated hospital rooms. One of the mannequins is able to deliver a baby, another can have a seizure or a heart attack and pneumonia symptoms, among others. Soon there will be state of the art equipment for the surgical technician program. The program will be getting what is called a “cut suit”. The “cut suit” is to be put on the mannequins and is able to recreate an incision on a patient.
“We changed the program so that the students have to master skills in the simulation lab before we go to clinical. By having the labs they get to practice on the mannequins first and then they are more prepared for the clinicals,” said Nursing Program Coordinator and event coordinator Lori Gagnon.
Gagnon says there is a multitude of different patient scenarios they would like the students to have experience with, but in the past were unable to adequately recreate them.
“For instance,” she said, “we would like our students to know what to do when someone is having a heart attack. We have a scenario where a [patient] mannequin is coming out of surgery, but then begins to complain about having chest pains. The students have to role play what they would do if this were a real patient.”
Nursing faculty member Meredith Bladecki spoke about reaching the 50 years of nursing milestone, “It’s fantastic! It’s a huge accomplishment and a great opportunity. We are able to keep up with the technology and keep ahead of what’s going on.”
Nursing faculty member Beth Zieman, says about the 50 years, “We appreciate the wonderful technology we have now. We can now bring the hospital experience to the students. The scenarios the students face while still going to school will help give them higher confidence and give them valuable training.”
The nursing students are to take working in the hospital simulation wing seriously. Nursing students are to be clothed in their scrubs whenever they enter the wing and have to adhere to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations.
Delta recently included a new curriculum for nursing students. The is now a part-time program as well as one for students who are already licensed practical nurses or paramedics who come back to get their RN. For Fall semester 2014, a new program option consists of students taking classes at Delta and Saginaw Valley at the same time. When students finish the program and pass their state boards within two semesters they can complete their Bachelor’s degree.
“Delta has had between a 91 percent and 98 percent success rate for the past three years for students finishing the nursing program. We have about 3,000 practicing nurses in our community that graduated from Delta College and I think they have made a huge impact on the health of our community, so we take a lot of pride in that,” said Gagnon.
