College of the Canyons unveiled its new health care training simulation center with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Don Takeda Science Center Wednesday morning.
The simulation center, on the science center’s second floor, encompasses a suite of rooms chock full of training technology for the college’s health care program students: a main lab with four bays, a control room, a task training room, an immersive room and a debriefing room for trainees to reflect on what they’ve learned.
COC nursing professor Heather Dotter said the college received $1 million in appropriation funds to begin the project thanks to Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, who spoke at the ribbon cutting.
After building the simulation center spaces, Dotter said the rest of the funds, along with $1.2 million from the Rebuilding Nursing Infrastructure grant, were used for high-tech equipment, such as lifelike mannequins, to help make the training process for future health care workers as intense as possible.
“The whole space can really gamify the student’s learning experience,” Dotter said.
About 500 students are anticipated to use the center each year, earning certificates related to their job field and gaining vital practice in skills necessary for getting jobs in health care immediately after graduating, according to a media advisory from the college.
Dotter said the college has just recently launched new training programs this past fall for five different health care roles: clinical lab scientist, diagnostic medical stenography, pharmacy technician and physical therapy assistant, with an occupational therapy assistant program starting in the fall.
The simulation center is meant to serve health care students looking for a significant range of training experiences, Dotter said.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to all come together and to work on our communication and teamwork skills,” Dotter said.
Speakers at the ribbon cutting Wednesday included college leadership alongside Schiavo. Dotter was joined by interim Superintendent-President Jasmine Ruys, COC board President Sharlene Johnson and Nadia Cotti, dean of health professions and public safety.
At the ribbon cutting, attendees got the chance to tour the center and see demonstrations of the equipment in use – and even participate.
Two years after Schiavo was able to secure funding for the project, Dotter said that it was gratifying to see her in the lab.
“We met initially when we first received the funding, and so it was really great to have (Schiavo) there so that we (could) show her our progress over the last few years,” Dotter said. “We did a demonstration for everybody, and we had Pilar get involved with a code blue … we pulled Pilar to do CPR on a mannequin, so that was a lot of fun for her.”
