Dwyer Healthcare Simulation Center- IU South Bend

By Indiana University South Bend General

Join us as we create a state-of-the-art simulation center at IU South Bend that will address the critical demand for healthcare professionals in Indiana!

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IU South Bend is constructing a new Simulation Center in the former Parkside Hall, where nursing and radiography students will soon have state-of-the-art training facilities.  The Dwyer Healthcare Simulation is scheduled to open for classes in Fall 2024. 

With simulation, nursing and radiography students can learn applied professional skills in a “simulated” medical environment, such as a hospital room complete with beds, equipment, and even mechanized human ‘manikins’ that are able to respond to engineered commands via software routines.  

“Right now, we can only set up one simulation at a time for observation. When we switch students, we can’t change that patient dramatically because we only have one space,” said Barbara White, assistant dean in the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences. “Next fall, we’ll be able to set up a patient in one room and do that simulation. Then we can go to another room and do something completely different. We have four simulation rooms, we can take the same concept and flip it into a new situation and that’s what nurses need to learn how to do.”  

The top floor is dedicated to the nursing program and will include a new skills lab, assessment lab, and four simulation rooms with four debrief conference rooms. These spaces will allow for multiple simulations to take place followed by immediate feedback with professors and peers in the debrief rooms.  

Radiography will have the first floor, with access to both an energized and non-energized lab. In the energized labs, radiography students will be able to take actual X-rays to better understand positioning and safety concepts. Learning those skills is critical to reducing patient radiation doses when the students work on patients in the community.  

Our students will benefit from the added simulated experience and gain confidence in serving our communities as healthcare providers.  The Center will address the critical demand for healthcare professionals in Indiana.