Birthing mannequin provides B.C. students life-like experience

A state of the art birthing simulation has come to the Southern Interior to help nursing students.

The TRU School of Nursing helped deliver baby Florence, born to Victoria – a $120,000 birthing mannequin.

Victoria is a life-size interactive female mannequin. She has full-body supple skin, seamless joints and is fully operational in transit. This will give nursing students a nearly life-life labour experience.

“We are very excited to have this caliber of fidelity mannequin available for our students,” said Dean of Nursing Donna Murnaghan.

“Victoria has the capacity to allow students to work through various stages of a pregnancy right up to a simulated birth. The faculty and simulation centre staff are able to program Victoria for students to experience a normal healthy birth as well as complex, emergency situations that require advanced assessments and critical action.”

Victoria and Florence are the most advanced child simulator on the market today. This mannequin will help nurses improve performance in areas where mistakes sometimes happen.

“Not every student will get the chance to help a real patient through labour. Having this mannequin helps close the gap for those students unable to be involved in such an experience and helps them to better understand what happens pre- and post-labour,” said Jenn Sage, nursing student.

“I think this will benefit the School of Nursing as it allows the program to expand its focus from a generalized medical/surgical focus to include scenarios that are perhaps more critical,” she said.