Illinois College nursing students are reaping the benefits of a special grant from the Springfield Memorial Foundation last year.
The $50,000 grant provided for the purchase of a variety of equipment for nursing students to use in non-clinical settings to gain crucial hands-on experience.
Executive Director for the Springfield Memorial Foundation, Melissa Hansen-Schmadeke, says that the patient simulation equipment purchased for the campus is technology that will help many students who pass through IC’s nursing program: “The simulation equipment is current technology. Technology changes rapidly. It’s a great opportunity for the Memorial Foundation to provide the newest, greatest technology to the students so they can learn right there on campus, and learn right alongside the amazing nursing instructors that they have at Illinois College.”
Schmadeke says that they hope to have some of the future nurses training on the equipment will join Memorial Health sometime in the future.
The grant was used to purchase a variety of items for the program, including IV infusion pumps, SimScreen Panels, ECG equipment and carts for medication and storage. Much of the equipment has enhanced simulation exercises in the nursing labs.
The pre-clinical equipment will allow students the opportunity to learn in a simulated setting in a safe and controlled environment before they set foot in a hospital.
The equipment is all a part of the ever-expanding nursing program at IC, which began its nursing program in April 2020. The program has quickly grown to enroll more than 100 nursing majors and pre-nursing students.