MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - The SimLife center at the Midland College was awarded a $2,000 grant for its "Little Babies/Big Need" on Monday.
The department's director says that money will be used to buy a "preemie" manikin simulator.
As of right now, the facility features infant and adult manikin simulators.
The lifelike bodies are programmed with scenarios and responses to prepare students for a variety of health complications that can arise through the labor and delivery process.
Though staff at the center explained to me that working with a full-term manikin is only part of the picture, and that the staff's current simulators can't replicate the complications of working with an infant that's born prematurely.
One of the department's professors Dr. Weidmann explained to me the importance of adding this particular manikin.
"Most of the high risk babies will be those that are premature, so it's nice to have a manikin that's simulating something that the students would actually see," said Dr. Weidmann
The new manikin will only be about half the size of the term-infant manikins they have now.
Also unique to these manikins the Midland College SimLife center will invite parents expectant of or with premature infants to practice with the manikin.
