The Health Science Program at Warren County High School is not for dummies, but it does have a state-of-the-art mannequin.
ALEX, a patient communication simulator, is a mannequin that mimics real patients in order to teach students how to respond to real-life medical situations, including emergencies. It is the first patient simulator to have speech recognition ability and a high-definition camera.
“I think it’s definitely going to be a benefit to future CNAs because you get to see different scenarios,” said WCHS senior Gabby Jones, who has plans to continue her training in the medical field after graduation. “It’s much better than what we were working with, a basic mannequin that can’t interact with us.”
ALEX can see, listen and talk to help medical students with several objectives. This includes: developing critical thinking, conducting initial patient assessments, and acquiring foundational nursing skills.
Using advanced speech recognition, ALEX can interact with students while they listen to normal or various abnormal lung/ heart/ bowel sounds with a stethoscope, measure blood pressure, check respiratory rate, airways, circulation, and if the medical situation calls for it, administer CPR and arm injections.
Instructors can deliver remote simulations. In the midst of a normal patient assessment, teachers can adjust vitals, speech and sounds to mimic a serious medical condition, and students must diagnose the situation.
The school purchased two of the patient communication simulators for the school’s Health Science program using part of a $125,000 grant obtained from the state to purchase equipment for the school’s Career and Technical Education program. Funds also purchased:
Welding Program: two Millermatic 252, four Millermatic 210 welders, one Miller 625 plasma welder, one plasma cam cutter, one Dell computer for plasma cam cutter, and three Clean Air America dual weld stations.
Mechatronics/ Robotics Program: seven Dell computers for Moto-Sim Touch-Mechatronics/ Robotics
Senior Erik Trujillo says the additional welding equipment was very much appreciated because it allows more students to participate in welding activities at the same time.
“We only had two welding stations,” he said. “You’d come in here and both of the stations would be in use. You’d have to wait to use one. Now, we have five stations and 11 welders. We might have two students at each station, but that’s OK. No one is waiting in line.”
CTE director Tracy Risinger thanked Gov. Bill Haslam, the Tennessee General Assembly, and the Tennessee Department of Education for providing the grant that will help high school students become college and career ready.
“Up-to-date industry standard equipment is vital for students to participate in hands-on activities to develop skills needed for post-secondary and the workforce and this CTE Equipment Grant has made it possible for our welding lab and health science labs to have equipment to help WCHS students be college and career ready,” said Risinger.
Tennessee Department of Education awarded $15 million in grants to fund new equipment for Career and Technical Education programs across Tennessee.
