DelTech shows off high-tech new nursing wing

On Monday morning, Gov. Jack Markell walked into a teaching lab in the new nursing wing in the Staton campus.

Two DelTech nursing faculty members bent over a “patient” whose heart had stopped, with one doing chest compressions while the other charging a defibrillator.

“Everybody get clear,” she said.

There was a high-pitched whine and zap.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Markell said, grinning.

The nurses were showing off the simulator dummies that are perhaps the most striking equipment in the school’s high-tech new nursing wing.

There have dummy babies that breathe, cry and turn blue.

They have fake patients that have realistic blood pressures, injectable veins and working respiration. They have “new moms” that can fully simulate a live birth.

Each time a student works on one of the dummies, the simulation might be a little bit different. Each of the labs has a control room where, concealed by one-way glass, instructors can tweak all the different bodily functions and even speak through the dummy’s mouth.

Nursing instructors say having simulations this close to real life allow students to get the mechanics of their job down-pat so that they are comfortable in a crisis and able to focus on the individual patient.

“A nursing student’s experience here mirrors what they will see in practice,” said Karen Rollo, chair of the nursing program.

Students have been working in the new wing since August, but DelTech hosted an official unveiling ceremony on Monday that drew a crowd of state and New Castle County leaders.

Adam Davidson, who graduated from DelTech’ nursing program last month, said he and his classmates walked right out of their first class in the new building to explore its labs, simulators and study spaces.

“The excitement was palpable,” he said. “The architecture, the amount of space, everything was breathtaking.”

School officials say the expansion, funded mostly through the state’s capital budget, was sorely needed. The nursing program had worked in the same 10,000 square-foot space even though the number of students it served almost double over the last decade.

“There were classes that were literally doing labs in the corridors,” President Mark Brainard said. “Our students and faculty are very deserving of this beautiful new space.”

Markell said the investment was an important way to open up good health care jobs for Delawareans and to staff the state’s hospitals and doctors’ offices with the best-trained workers.

“This is a really important investment in Delaware’s economy and in Delaware’s health,” he said. “We know that our investment in Delaware Tech is going to earn a return for Delaware.”

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com or at 324-2428.