Tech Med

UM'S NURSING HOSPITAL: ROBOTS WANTED

University of Miami Nursing Simulation Hospital

Upon arrival at the University of Miami’s Nursing Simulation Hospital, one might think it’s an actual hospital on-campus, complete with operating rooms, birthing suites, and an ER. Student nurses in mint green scrubs hurry from room to room.

Upon closer inspection, the patients on the operating tables look curiously like realistic mannequins. And that is because they are.

“From the moment anyone walks through those doors, we want them to feel like they’ve already entered a hospital,” says Director of Simulation Hospital Special Programs Susana Barroso-Fernandez. “It’s our job to put [nursing students] in situations very similar to what they would be encountering in a hospital.”

The simulation hospital is populated by “simulators” that can do everything from breathe to sweat to cry. They range from babies to adults, female and male, of all different ethnicities – and all manifesting different illnesses. Controlled by operators in a separate room, the can even speak back to students.

Operators in a special room can make the robots talk back to students

The idea for the hospital, which went ‘live’ last fall, came from former Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies, Nilda Peragallo, who envisioned a “place where students could come and immerse themselves” in a realistic hospital setting, says Barroso-Fernandez. With robots that can complain, that sounds pretty close.