Thanks to a $200,000 donation from TD Bank Group, Thompson Rivers University’s (TRU) mobile health care training unit will soon be visiting B.C.’s rural areas for in-person clinical training. The mobile unit will provide TRU students specialized medical training without having to leave their own communities, which had been sited as the cause for drop-outs in some programs in the past with students not wanting to travel away from their home base.
The TRU School of Nursing’s Mobile Simulation Lab is a retrofitted recreational vehicle, complete with state-of-the-art training equipment enabling students to learn remotely from their hometowns. TRU Open Learning healthcare students in locations from as far away as Bella Coola to Barriere will have the opportunity to learn hands on in the mobile unit which will be a training asset for years to come.
“We’ve had students drop out because they didn’t want to leave their communities,” said School of Nursing Associate Dean Tracy Hoot in a news release. “By bringing education to rural learners, our hope is that it will help keep people in their communities where there is a great demand for health-care services.”
“Thanks to TD’s support, there are new opportunities to service remote areas through training and patient care with the TRU Mobile Simulation Lab,” said School of Nursing Dean Rani Srivastava. “The School of Nursing is committed to continued learning of Indigenous ways of knowing and being and increasing access to learning for all our students. The mobile simulation lab provides opportunity for both.”
The mobile lab enables TRU teaching staff to use multiple simulators and task trainers while offering diverse training experiences which also include a high-fidelity simulator designed for clinical by using a training model called ‘Nursing Annie’ which depicts a live person with normal and abnormal breathing sounds, heart rates and rhythms and bowel sounds.
The mobile training lab gives students the ability to practice patient care, safe patient handling, lifts and transfers. The mobile unit can also be converted for use as a mobile vaccination unit and a mobile healthcare clinic as the need arises.
"We’re so proud to support TRU's Mobile Simulation Lab and make healthcare education more accessible for students from rural, remote and Indigenous communities," said Zach Lord, BC Northern Interior District vice-president, TD Bank Group. “With Canada's population aging at a rapid pace, the need for more caregivers in long-term care, assisted living and home support is greater than ever. Through the TD Ready Commitment, our corporate citizenship platform, we're helping people and communities prepare for the careers of tomorrow by investing in initiatives that build employable skills."
The RV is small enough to drive without a special license with the design led by the director of the Simulation-Based Learning Centre, Michael Lundin who kept in mind the need for a patient lift, room for simulation training and living quarters for the faculty or service providers while working remotely in rural communities.
