SIMS Medical Center at STCC ‘wows’ health care employers
Representatives of area health care agencies tour the SIMS Medical Center at STCC.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Springfield-area health-care employers recently received an eye-opening tour of the SIMS Medical Center, the nationally recognized patient simulation facility at Springfield Technical Community College.
Training and Workforce Options (TWO), the workforce development collaborative of Springfield Technical and Holyoke Community College, arranged the tour with 11 employers representing eight different companies, said Sharon Grundel, director of Healthcare Training Development for TWO.
The visit in August provided a unique opportunity for health-care employers to get a close-up look at the training process. The SIMS Medical Center provides a state-of-the-art educational environment where students and health-care professionals obtain new skills or enhance existing ones.
The facility’s patient simulators look and talk like real people. They might express displeasure, produce fluids and emit odors while undergoing treatment.
It was Bill Corbett’s first time touring the SIMS Medical Center, and it left an impression. Like other employers, he received hands-on experience working with the simulators.
“The SIMS facility was truly amazing,” said Corbett, human resources coordinator for Aging at Home Inc., a home care services agency in Westfield. “The simulation that it offers, giving the students a chance to actually interact with the ‘patient,’ really adds a ‘wow’ factor to the training.”
“It was a wonderful experience. I truly wish something like this had been available when I was a nursing student many years ago,” said Debra Allen, vice president of Porchlight VNA/Home Care, in Chicopee.
Grundel said the company officials who toured the SIMS facility employ home health aides and certified nursing assistants who graduated from STCC.
“Their employees have gone through similar training in the SIMs Medical Center, where they received hands-on applied learning,” Grundel said.
Any businesses interested in touring the SIMS Medical Center at STCC should contact Sharon Grundel of TWO. Call (413) 755-4396 or email SGrundel@TWOworks.org.
About Training and Workforce Options (TWO)
Training and Workforce Options (TWO) is a formal workforce development collaborative of Springfield Technical and Holyoke Community College, designed to optimize employer access to high quality training and education at affordable rates. TWO offers customized employee training, organizational planning, workforce needs assessments and assistance with Workforce Training Fund applications.
Between the two colleges there are dozens of training disciplines offered that complement and strengthen one another. TWO is capable of designing and customizing any curriculum to meet employer needs, and will train on-site or at either of the colleges.
About Springfield Technical Community College
Founded in 1967 and located on 35 acres of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, STCC is a major resource for the economic vitality of Western Massachusetts. As the only technical community college in Massachusetts, STCC, a designated Hispanic Serving Institution and an Achieving the Dream Leader College, offers a variety of career programs unequalled in the state. STCC’s highly regarded transfer programs in business, engineering, liberal arts, science and technology continue to provide the most economical options for students pursuing a four-year degree. With an annual enrollment of more than 8,500 day, evening, weekend and online students, STCC is a vibrant campus rich in diversity.
For more information about STCC, visit www.stcc.edu. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@S_T_C_C).
Media Contact:
Jim Danko, (413) 755-4812, jdanko@stcc.edu
Lower photo caption: Liz Davila, left, of Kind Hands Care at Home in Longmeadow and Lisa Gentile, RN, of PorchLight VNA/Home Care tend to a patient simulator at STCC.