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News Release

Media Contacts:
Christina Chavira
Communications Specialist
530.332.5589 - office; 530.588.4411 - cell
christina.chavira@enloe.org        

Simulation Center to celebrate state grant, anniversary 

CHICO, Calif., April 20, 2009 – The Rural Northern California Simulation Center invites the public to an open house April 23 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Sim Center is inside the Enloe Cohasset Campus, at 560 Cohasset Road in Chico. The event will celebrate the center’s two-year anniversary and a recent Nursing Education Initiative grant from the State of California to expand nursing education.

The open house will demonstrate patient simulation technology, including a look at how simulation can be used for public health, home health and mental health. It will also offer a sneak peak at new wireless technologies that will be available at the Sim Center this summer thanks to the recent state grant. 

The Sim Center is operated by the Rural Northern California Simulation Partnership, a collaboration of the California State University, Chico School of Nursing; Enloe Medical Center; Feather River Hospital; and the Butte College School of Nursing. It is designed to give students and professionals an opportunity to practice real-life scenarios, facilitate interdisciplinary training and relationships, and improve patient safety. More than 3,200 people have attended educational and training sessions at the simulation center in its two years of operation.

The 1,200-square-foot center houses five mock patient rooms with adult and pediatric patient simulators, a birthing simulator and an infant simulator. The space also includes a nurse’s station and conference rooms, and is equipped with mock medications, IV supplies, chest tubes, crash carts and other medical supplies. The facility is fully integrated with digital audio/visual equipment, enabling simulations to be recorded and used for debriefing, review and refinement.

In January 2009, CSU, Chico and the Sim Center received $200,000 in state funding to expand nursing education, one of several grant distributions in the state under the Governor’s Task Force for the California Nurse Education Initiative. With these grant funds, the Sim Center will transition to the next phase in simulation technology by providing wireless patient simulators, which will enable on-site simulation programs for area hospitals and schools.

The California Nurse Education Initiative was launched in 2005 to help relieve the shortage of nurses and lack of program capacity at nursing schools. The initiative includes $90 million to support nurse education; public-private partnerships encouraging private schools and health facilities to partner and develop more nursing education programs; support for recruitment of nursing instructors; development of new avenues to nursing careers; and seeking of additional funds for nursing education.

Learn more about the Sim Center at http://www.csuchico.edu/nurs/SimCenter/SimCenterhome.html.

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Enloe Medical Center is a local, nonprofit health care organization. For more information, please call 530/332-7300 or visit us online at http://www.enloe.org.   Enloe Medical Center is located at 1531 Esplanade Chico, Calif.  95926.