The George & Marian Miller Center for Virtual Learning is possible through a generous gift from the Miller Family. Students train on equipment that simulates every aspect of patient care for a much broader and intense education than any traditional program can offer. Students practice on life size robotic patients programmed with true life and death scenarios in real time. Sessions can be digitally recorded for performance review by instructors and students. Virtual reality software available in the Center will allow students to interact with full 3-D scenarios with patients, family, medical personnel and equipment to put students in control. Recently the facility has expanded to include a Nurse Anesthesia Lab, a Critical and acute Care Simulation lab, and a Women's Health and Pediatric Simulation Laboratory.
The Center allows students to acquire the full range of skills needed for nursing, ranging from drawing blood and hanging an IV bag to delivering babies and preparing toddlers for surgery. Mannequins include Noelle, a woman who gives birth, and newborn Hal, who breathes, cries and is programmed to respond physiologically to students' interventions.
Simulation enables our students to learn critical skills in a safe environment and gain a tremendous amount of experience by doing procedures and then observing their impact on the human simulator without compromising the health and safety of human patients. With the simulation, USF nursing students learn how to cope with a challenging health experiences and gain confidence in their own ability to handle a similar situation in real life. By the time the students get to the hospital for the clinical experience they have already practiced and succeeded in the skills needed to care for patients, all that remains is to put the pieces together. The students have a lot more confidence in their own abilities, and the instructors are assured of the students' skills because the students have already proved that they can do it right.