Hawaii Nursing Simulation Center launched at UH

Four of Hawaii’s healthcare industry leaders joined officials and students at the University of Hawaii Manoa’s School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene on Dec. 21 to celebrate $1,050,000 in initial gifts to support the development of the Hawaii Nursing Simulation Center at Webster Hall.

At this celebration, healthcare leaders presented a check totaling $1.05 million, representing their four recent gifts made in support of the planned simulation center: HMSA Foundation made a $500,000 gift; Hawaii Pacific Health contributed $250,000; Kaiser Permanente Hawaii contributed $50,000; and the Queen’s Medical Center contributed an additional $250,000. UH-Manoa is providing space and facilitating the creation of this shared community resource.

The gifts will support designing and planning the transformation of the existing training spaces into a 7,000 sq. ft. facility equipped to serve as a statewide resource and address the ongoing need for nursing clinical and workforce education. Using state-of-the-art technology and high-speed technology, the Center will increase the professional nurse’s ability to ensure patient safety; build advanced technical skills; and develop decision-making abilities of nurses and healthcare providers. The Center will serve all islands and link existing simulation labs of the UH Statewide Nursing Consortium and hospitals throughout the state.

The Center will simulate the continuum of clinical settings, and be equipped with human patient simulators, bedside computers, digitalized video recording capacity and interactive instructional software. It will feature realistic practice settings, including the medical-surgical hospital unit, critical care, surgical/operating suite, pediatrics, neonatal nursery, maternity, ambulatory and home care.