The Foundation for Educational Excellence is thrilled to award grant money to a variety of projects with varying goals. But the recent “Can You Hear Me Now” project created by Jennifer Calcorzi, EMS Instructor, and Chelsey Bates, Nursing Instructor, at the Beaufort Jasper Academy of Career Excellence (ACE) had particular significance. The skills obtained by the students involved in this project went WELL beyond mastering basic educational skills. This project’s outcome produced LIFESAVING skills for the 11th and 12th grade students enrolled in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Health Sciences Programs at the Beaufort Jasper ACE.
The grant money awarded for this project went towards the purchase of a heart and lung (HAL) manikin used to train students to identify heart and lung sounds that replicate realistic medical findings when assessing patients.
Students enrolled in the EMS and Health Sciences Programs are preparing to enter the work force with certifications in Emergency Medical Services, Certified Nursing Assistants, or utilizing these courses as a pathway into other healthcare related fields. Simulated and real-world training and experiences are required to both certify and prepare students to enter the healthcare industry.
The HAL torso manikin, purchased through the grant money awarded by The Foundation, allows for increased practice of these necessary lifesaving skills. The manikin torso replicates all the appropriate sounds that can be heard when students place a stethoscope at the proper anatomical regions. The information gathered from the manikin is amplified so all students can hear, and the teachers can teach appropriate action to be taken.
Through the “Can You Hear Me Now?” project, the students were able to learn about the heart and lung functions and their respective sounds - at rest, under stress, and in emergency situations that inform the student of the required treatment course to take with patients. The hands-on component of the programs at ACE require that students are given experiences that are as close to reality as possible.
“Having this (HAL) available now has truly been key in mastering patient assessment techniques which is foundation in all Health Science Programs,” says Chelsey Bates, Nursing Instructor at ACE. “The quality of this manikin provides a much more realistic scenario for students to be able to hear what is going on with their patient and successfully identify what is going on with each patient. Being able to identify various types of lung and heart sounds in the classroom provides the confidence students need to successfully perform in the field.”
According to both Chelsey and Jennifer, the benefits achieved from receiving the ability to purchase the HAL manakin has been instrumental. By the end of the teaching model in this content area, all students were able to correctly identify all the varying sounds with 90% accuracy.
As lessons continued throughout the module, cardiac and respiratory scenarios were provided with students having to listen to the selected sound to determine what the patient’s lung and heart sounds are. All students passed their medical scenarios with 100% accuracy in not just identification but in their treatment plans as well!
In addition, all students in the Spring Semester that had the opportunity to use the HAL manakin for the first time, passed their National Registry patient assessment stations on their first attempt.
“Evaluators also made the comment to me afterwards on how impressed they were on the student’s ability to correctly assess and identify the patient’s conditions,” said Jennifer Calcorzi, EMS Instructor at ACE. “This was the first time in the EMS Program that all students that tested, passed their patient assessment stations with 100% accuracy on first attempt!”
The real life and lifesaving skills implemented through the “Can You Hear Me Now?” grant program are skills that will impact these students far into their careers in the healthcare industry. But the impact is even farther reaching than the students. To think that these skills will also positively impact their future patients is even more rewarding.
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