University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Nursing Dean Jean Brown (center) with nursing student and alumna in the Patient Simulation Center in Wende Hall. Photo: CHUCK TOY

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• “These enhancements and expansion of our center’s capabilities will allow us to provide high-fidelity simulation training in anesthesia crisis management in an environment with technologies that reflect the latest in best practicesd.”

  Thomas E. Obst

  Director, Nurse Anesthesia Program

By SARA SALDI

Published: October 28, 2010

The School of Nursing has received a grant of $297,491 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund enhancements within its Patient Simulation Center (PSC).

The PSC of the Nurse Anesthetist Program enables UB nursing students to practice patient care in a simulated operating room using a full-body, computer-controlled mannequin and advanced patient monitoring and anesthesia-delivery technologies.

The grant will be used to update and expand the PSC’s simulation training capabilities, according to Thomas E. Obst, director of the UB Nurse Anesthesia Program.

It will fund replacement of the current patient simulator, anesthesia gas machine and surgical table, and expand the PSC’s training capabilities with the addition of a pediatric anesthesia simulator, fiber-optic airway-management equipment, ultrasonic imaging equipment and a range of surgical equipment.

“These enhancements and expansion of our center’s capabilities will allow us to provide high-fidelity simulation training in anesthesia crisis management in an environment with technologies that reflect the latest in best practices,” said Obst. 

In addition to being a site for teaching UB nurse-anesthetist graduate students, the PSC provides basic and advanced training in anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and acute management of rare or critical events for clinicians from multiple disciplines.

The center, created in 1997, is located in Wende Hall on the South Campus. A $7.1 million renovation of Wende Hall was completed this year, transforming the historic building into a dynamic, user-friendly, energy-efficient setting for 21st-century nursing education. The facility includes state-of-the-art classrooms, instructional laboratories and research space for the School of Nursing.