Noelle Gives Birth Many Times Daily

In a Chabot College laboratory, Noelle gives birth to Hal. Then she does it again and again and again ...

Noelle is a $50,000, life-size, high-fidelity mannequin with computers for internal organs, and so is her newborn baby boy.

“They have a heart rate. They breathe. Their chests rise. They can bleed," said Chabot College Nursing Program Director Connie Telles.

The mannequins are part of a new simulation lab for the college's nursing program. As students listen to the rhythmical wooshing of a fetal heart monitor, they develop a sensory awareness that otherwise would require long experience with real babies.

“Active learning is the future of nursing education,” Telles said.

Using the most up-to-date teaching methods has helped Chabot College students achieved a nearly 100 percent pass rate on a national licensing exam for the past five years.

The high-tech, wireless Simulation Laboratory—“sim lab” for short—looks like a multi-purpose hospital room with two beds, a bassinet and the latest hospital equipment.

Currently, the sim lab is populated by a busy family of four: Noelle, Hal, a 5-year-old version of Hal and "Simulation Man Essential."

While nursing students learn, instructors in a control room observe from behind a one-way mirror, using computers to remotely manipulate the activity and vital signs of the mannequins.

The exercises require role play and reflect the drama and crisis that is typical in any hospital, including a labor and delivery room.

“We can make the newborn’s lips turn blue and the students will need to take appropriate action. One of the students will play the role of a nervous family member and another student will need to calm that person using appropriate communication. The students do all the work. This is hands-on learning that approximates real-life situations,” Telles explained.

During one scenario, nursing students watch their peers on a video monitor in the debriefing room. Then they will change places, with each group watching their performances and discussing what they learned.

Telles funded the new lab with a Song-Brown Nursing Education Grant, Pete Stark and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education Retention Grant, Measure B funds, and private funding from the Chabot College Foundation. A private donation also came from nursing program graduate Nancy Cuddy Pennell in memory of her friend Kathi LaGrange, also a nursing program graduate.

In 2009, Telles completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice, which included simulation research at the University of San Francisco. 

For more information about the Chabot College Nursing Program, visit www.chabotcollege.edu/nursor contact nurse@chabotcollege.edu.