Gulf Franklin Campus shows off its best
Patients at Gulf Coast State College’s Gulf Franklin Campus cry, bleed, breathe, speak and give birth — so long as they’re plugged in.
The college’s new nursing simulation labs were among the cutting edge technology on display at the school’s open house last week.
On Jan. 24, dozens of people gathered in GCSC’s new nursing ward to receive demonstrations from the faculty and students.
“I think that the equipment being state of the art gives us a better edge when we go out to the workplace,” said nursing student Melissa Fuina. “It’s just very realistic. You feel like you’ve walked into an actual hospital.”
“And having this be so affordable and so close to home is just an added bonus.”
At the open house, college students, faculty and staff were eager to show off campus’s new nursing facilities, which had recently been remodeled.
In addition to the school’s seven bed Simulation Suite that resembles an ICU, they have added a 12 bed skills lab, a four bed OB and Pediatric Simulation Lab, three new modern classrooms, and a debriefing classroom and lounge area.
Nursing simulators give them the opportunity to see the symptoms and treatments of various different ailments first hand before they move on to work with real-life patients.
But beyond that, nursing student Francisco Viera said, it allows them to practice the everyday tasks nurses need to perform.
“We’re basically learning about basic care right not, so checking your vital signs, perennial baths, giving partial baths, changing the bed while the patient is still on the bed and also just getting oriented with how hospital work is,” he said.
But though he said the technology is helpful in his learning, his favorite part of learning at GCSC is the teaching staff.
“The thing that ties it in for me is just the professors. The professors really care about you, and they want to see you succeed,” he said.
To learn more about GCSC’s Gulf Franklin Campus and the programs they offer, visit the school’s website at https://www.gulfcoast.edu/about-gcsc/campus-locations/gulf-franklin/index.html.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.