Students simulate surgery: First-year students take on open abdominal aortic surgery in NIC's Health Science Simulation Center
NIC student Brea Fieguth, far right, prepares surgery instruments while student Taryn Mann, left, Dr. Hassan Tehrani and physician assistant Kristina Goodman perform abdominal aortic surgery on a manikin April 27 at the NIC Health Sciences Simulation Center on the main campus in Coeur d’Alene.
North Idaho College Surgical Technology students prepped an unusual patient for abdominal aortic surgery on April 27 in NIC’s Health Science Simulation Center.
“When the clamp is placed on the patient’s aorta, the blood flow to the legs stops, and time is critical,” said Terra Lawson-Gilbert, NIC Surgical Technology assistant professor. “This is an exciting case for our students to experience.”
The patient was a plastic head-and-torso manikin with proportional and realistic organs and dyed water that served as blood. The manikin was one of two plastic patients to go under the knife in one of the students’ last simulations of the semester.
First-year students in NIC’s surgical technology program spend part of their spring semester practicing surgeries and scenarios in one of the college’s state-of-the-art simulation labs − a two-bed operating room that includes all the instruments and equipment students need to learn their field.
NIC’s Simulation Center also includes two private patient rooms, two conference rooms, a nurse’s station and reception area, as well as a control center for faculty and staff to simulate scenarios. The center was finished in 2017 using funds from the Idaho Center of Excellence’s Healthcare Partnership Grant.
Students in NIC’s Health Professions and Nursing Divisions get their first taste of their chosen profession in the Simulation Center before they start student-work in clinics in their second year. Lawson-Gilbert said it provides invaluable experience for students.
“This is as close as you can get to the real thing without actually being in the operating room,” Lawson-Gilbert said. “The point of these labs is to prepare our students not only to use the instruments and equipment, but also to get used to the environment of the operating room, which can be stressful and chaotic.”
Surgical technology students not only put their technical skills to the test in the Simulation Center, but also get to practice procedures with other working professionals. Lawson-Gilbert invites regional medical providers to the Simulation Center to work with students throughout the semester.
Cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Hassan Tehrani and physician assistant Kristina Goodman from MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane volunteered to help in the Simulation Center and lead three students in an abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery on the limbless manikin on April 27. Tehrani said Deaconess is invested in helping train students in health sciences.
“We have to train the next generation. Maybe one of them will be working on me, you never know,” Tehrani said. “We take physician assistant students and med students at Deaconess, and I think it’s important that we do that. They need to have exposure to the things they’ll face on the job, and this is just another aspect of that without working on a live patient.”
NIC student Brea Fieguth served as the lead scrub for Tehrani and Goodman during the abdominal aortic surgery simulation. She said the experience was helpful, if not stressful, and was a good introduction to what goes on in an operating room.
“I feel like this is where they show us all the hard stuff and the tough love,” Fieguth said. “They do a really good job, and our teachers are very passionate about going above and beyond to give us real life experiences, as much as they can. They really go out of their way just to give us that.”
For more information about NIC’s Surgical Technology program, contact NIC Surgical Technology Assistant Professor Terra Lawson-Gilbert at (208) 769-3236 or Terra.Lawson-Gilbert@nic.edu.
Physician assistant Kristina Goodman, left, NIC student Brea Fieguth and Dr. Hassan Tehrani check the vitals of a manikin during a mock abdominal aortic surgery April 27 at the NIC Health Sciences Simulation Center on the main campus in Coeur d’Alene.
Story and photos by Megan Snodgrass mpsnodgrass@nic.edu
Posted: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
