East Stroudsburg University Receives $217,524 for SIM Lab from Monroe’s Local Share Account (LSA)

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, East Stroudsburg University received word that the College of Health Sciences has been awarded $217,524 in grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Local Share Account (LSA) in Monroe County to assist in the creation of a Community Health Education and Simulation Center (CHESC). This center will be equipped with high-tech simulation manikins and other state of the art technologies to supplement and enhance student learning in multiple disciplines. ESU applied for the LSA funding in 2018 with the intention of building and supplying a Simulation Center that will enable health science students and health care workers in the region to learn and practice advanced healthcare skills. These include complex medical procedures and life-saving techniques such as resuscitation of babies, management of heart attacks, care of athletes with head trauma, and other medical crises.

“Funding our LSA request is a great start and we need to specifically credit Rep. Madden (D-Monroe) and all of our legislators for their support of our application,” says ESU President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D.  “We’ve (ESU) already contributed the costs of developing the design and construction documents to get this project started and we’re ready to provide space to house and run the facility long-term and to purchase some of the manikins as necessary. When all of the funding is in place, this Center will absolutely modernize and strengthen healthcare education in Monroe County and the entire Pocono Mountains Region.”

According to Denise Seigart, Ph.D., dean of the college of health sciences at ESU, the manikins will be life-size and replicate medical scenarios as programmed by a simulation lab instructor, operating them from an adjoining room in order to create realistic medical situations. “Remarkably, the manikins are programmed to respond to environmental changes and medical intervention and each simulation session can then be recorded and followed by an intensive debriefing in a multimedia classroom setting,” said Dr. Seigart. “Everyone – professionals, patients and families – will benefit from the technological advancements this Center will afford.”

The Center is slated to occupy the second floor of the DeNike Center for Human Services with a total square footage of 1,150 ft.

“We can’t wait to make this a reality,” noted Joanne Z. Bruno, J.D., provost and vice president of academic affairs at ESU. “When we started to have conversations about this space, we discovered that Pennsylvania has a shortage of about 20,000 nurses. This Center at ESU will help us to develop and improve the clinical skills of prospective and current health care providers throughout the region while also addressing the need for these professionals to annually hone skills necessary to manage, staff and develop competitive facilities.”

For more information about the LSA funding, contact the ESU Foundation at 570-422-3333.

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