The brand new Ned J. Sifferlen Health Sciences Center is completed, and will host a Community Open House for Sinclair students, their families and the entire Dayton community from 1–4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7.
The open house will feature multiple activities for visitors of all ages. For children, there will be a petting zoo, a fire engine from the fire science program, an obstacle course, and multiple science demonstrations. For adults, there will be health and wellness screenings and education, as well as flu vaccinations for 200 individuals, and Premier Health will have their mammogram van for free mammogram screenings.
The Health Sciences department will give tours of the new building, featuring exhibits and demonstrations of the latest simulation training technology. One of the new facilities that will be shown is a surgical suite, where students will use hospital-quality technology on lifelike dummies that simulate multiple bodily functions such as breathing. One of the new dummies actually breathes in oxygen, and breathes out CO2, allowing the students to measure how well it’s lungs are functioning. There is also a dummy that gives birth to a baby that has similar functions to the adult dummies.
For training Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and Paramedics there is a fully functioning ambulance replica that gets them prepared to work in tight spaces with professional tools. They also have a replica of the front of a vehicle, to train them on caring for victims in a vehicular accident.
Another new facility is the physical therapy room. This has all the equipment you would find in a professional setting, such as massage tables, exercise bikes, treadmills, and a walkway with parallel bars used to help patients learn to walk again.
The initial plan to develop the Sifferlen Health Sciences Center came about through a resolution from the Sinclair Board of Trustees created in January 2012, although it has long been contemplated at Sinclair. Approximately 30 percent of all students enrolled at Sinclair are in the Health Sciences division, and those that graduate from Sinclair are recognized as some of the best health care workers in the region.
However, prior to the construction of the Sifferlen Health Sciences Center, the facilities were causing some concern as to the future of the Health Sciences division.
Dr. Rena Shuchat, the Dean of Health Sciences at Sinclair, spoke about some of the things that created a need for change. She mentioned how the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was passed in 2010, brought to light some ways healthcare was falling short, and what was needed to make it better.
Due to the ACA “we now know that healthcare is expected to be collaborative, the model is expected to be coordinated so that different teams of health care professionals know what to do in order to have the best patient outcome,” Dr. Shuchat stated. “We set up this building so that we could bring the health care programs together who tend to work together.”
Before the new building was finished, the different healthcare education facilities were spread out across nine different buildings, which made it almost impossible for the different programs to work together.
“More patients are being pushed out of the hospital sooner, and care is taking place in the home.” Dr. Shuchat said. This was the reason they built one of the first fully functioning apartments in the nation, which is designed to train students for home health care and emergency scenarios in an environment similar to what they will experience after graduating from Sinclair.
The apartment is modeled after an efficiency apartment, similar to what you would find in a nursing home. It has a kitchen with all working appliances, a bathroom that is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant with a tub that is purposely made to be difficult to get someone out of, as well as a living room with a recliner that is also hard to get a patient out of.
With over 500 clinical affiliations within the region, Sinclair is one of the biggest contributors to the healthcare workforce in the area. With the Sifferlen Health Sciences Center now open, Sinclair has the proper facilities to ensure their graduates will go into the workforce prepared to give their patients the best care possible.
Daniel Riley
Reporter