PAGE 8 • HERMISTON HERALD/EAST OREGONIAN
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015
HERMISTON
Good Shepherd education expansion will improve overall care
Project slated for
completion this
month
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
HERMISTON HERALD
Starting this spring,
Good Shepherd Medical
Center education depart-
ment will have a few more
tools at its disposal that will
enhance the level of train-
ing for medical profession-
als and care for patients.
Last year, Good Shep-
herd announced that it
would be expanding its
education department by
2,000 square feet at a cost
of approximately $500,000.
Construction began last
summer, and it will be com-
pleted in the next couple of
weeks.
The expansion is provid-
ing the department with not
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and storage, it will also fea-
ture a classroom and simu-
lation room, where health-
care professionals will be
trained in a controlled en-
vironment using high-tech
medical mannequins.
“To me, having the sim-
ulation lab and all the pos-
sibilities that that brings
raises the level of training
and expertise to an entire-
ly new level,” Juli Grego-
ry, director of education at
Good Shepherd Medical
Center, said. “For a rural
community, and for a com-
munity hospital to have that
level available for the re-
gion, is incredible to me. It
is a dream come true.”
Gregory said the simu-
lation room will look like
a regular exam room found
at the hospital. Rather than
diagnose and treat regular
patients, nurses, healthcare
students and possibly doc-
tors will use the simulation
mannequins as the patients
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTOS
Employees from Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting cut the sidewalk for
the newly expanded Good Shepherd Medical Center education
department this week.
The Good Shepherd Medical Center Education Department expansion is expected to be complete
in the next few weeks. Included in the expansion is a simulation room, where healthcare students
and professionals will complete training sessions using high-tech simulation mannequins.
to practice for a variety of
scenarios they might en-
counter in a regular hospi-
tal setting. Gregory said the
hospital plans to have one
adult and one child high-
tech simulation mannequin
available this spring.
Gregory said the hospital
currently has two medical
mannequins, but their ca-
pabilities are limited. One,
named Ken-E Breathe, is
no more advanced than a
typical CPR dummy. The
other, named CURT, short
for Cardiac Utility Resus-
citation Training, can be
administered IVs and mim-
ics certain body functions,
such as pupil dilation. The
new simulation manne-
quins will be far more ad-
vanced, however.
Gregory said the new
medical mannequins will
be able to, among other
things, mimic having sei-
zures, retain pretend bodily
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pulse and other body func-
tions that can be adjusted
by the training adviser us-
ing a computer in a sepa-
rate, but nearby room. The
simulation room will also
be equipped with cameras,
and the training sessions,
where the “patients” will
be tested and treated for a
range of medical ailments,
will be recorded and re-
viewed later so the trainees
can be given feedback on
their performance. “When
you use simulation man-
nequins with training, you
are able to put people in
real-life situations without
putting somebody at risk,”
she said. “They are able to
go through a scenario that
they will probably have
to deal with at some point
during their career. They
are able to learn from that.”
Gregory said it will take
some time to teach staff
how to use the mannequins
and the equipment in the
facility, but, once they are,
the training-scenario pos-
sibilities are endless. She
said the education depart-
ment already conducts any-
where from 1,500 to 2,000
classes and events per year.
About 600 to 700 of those,
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healthcare professionals.
With the extra classroom
space from the expansion,
department staff will be
able offer more educational
opportunities and courses.
“We will be able to use
this setup here, this simula-
tion lab, to train newly hired
nurses, new graduate nurs-
es,” she said. “Potentially,
we could use it for newly
hired respiratory therapy
(technicians). There is just
so many potential uses
there.”
Gregory said the expan-
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the opportunities that the
simulation lab will provide,
will enhance the level of
care patients receive.
“The opportunity to ex-
pand what (students) have
learned while still in school
and to provide the oppor-
tunity to experience those
scenarios in a safe environ-
ment, in addition to what it
brings for our own staff, it
raises the level,” she said.
“I am just so excited about
this and what it means for
health services.”
She said the facility will
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pital staff. It is also intend-
ed to be available to other
medical professionals in the
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police departments or oth-
er agencies that have staff
who may be required to
perform medical care.
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