JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Baptist Health has unveiled its newest state-of-the-art medical training facility, built to not only train new healthcare professionals but also provide veteran healthcare professionals with hands-on training in newer medical technologies and procedures.
The unveiling of the new training facility, located on Phillips Highway, comes during a time when Jacksonville, like many other cities across the US, is dealing with a nursing shortage caused by an aging workforce, high burnout, and increased demands for services due to area growth.
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Already, Florida is projected to have nearly 60,000 fewer nurses by 2035 based on those factors.
Baptist Health CEO, Michael Mayo, said one of the biggest challenges in healthcare in Jacksonville is recruiting and retaining competent nurses and physicians. In an effort to meet that challenge, the hospital decided to open a new training facility.
“We have 20 simulated hospital rooms with mannequins they can train on, and we have two fully equipped operating rooms. We can train those surgical techs and surgical nurses in those skills as well,” Mayo said.
The training facility is equipped to simulate every medical procedure and emergency imaginable. This includes everything from a patient showing up in the ER with a severed hand to the delivery of a baby.
To make the simulations even more real, every mannequin can move its eyes, breathe, and even cry. Every surgical tool is real. Every hospital room inside the facility looks like an actual Baptist Hospital room.
There’s even an ambulance inside the facility that was donated by Clay County medical officials.
There’s a high demand in Jacksonville for healthcare professionals who, on any given day, may only have one chance to make the right decision to save a patient’s life.
“This learning center allows team members the ability to practice and talk through different scenarios they are going to encounter daily and be able to get into their clinical reasoning, the decision-making process, and either learn from their mistakes or from their correct actions,” said medical simulation manager Amy Shaheen.
Not only is there a need for new skilled healthcare workers, but there is also a need to make sure current healthcare workers are trained on the newest medical technology and procedures.
“This center becomes the game-changer for training individuals, retraining, and bringing people back in if there are new services or new equipment that we need to test and train. We can do it in this environment before it goes live,” Mayo said.
Baptist Health hopes this facility will help meet both current and future demands for medical services in Jacksonville.