$1.3 million in grants expands nursing simulation programs in Maryland

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (ABC7) — Goodness Ncanana is a few months away from completing her nursing degree. She’s training to do the same work her mother did in South Africa before dying in 2005.

“Due to the lack of help and not having the right care that’s why she wasn’t able to make it,” Ncanana said.

Ncanana is working hard to make it as a nurse in the U. S. Part of her training at Montgomery College is offered in a nursing simulation lab.

“We let the students actually do the skills that they are actually going to do on the real person in simulation where they have the luxury of not hurting anybody,” said Montgomery College simulation coordinator Rose Kronziah-Seme.

The mannequins at the school’s lab do more than most. Not only do they talk and blink, they also simulate breathing.

“The room is set up into an ER in a hospital. You are able to touch and feel the pulse, start an IV, run the IV, able to you know, use the monitor and put in the vitals,” Ncanana said.

Now two state grants totaling over $1.3 million are expanding nursing simulation education at Montgomery College and around Maryland. Most of the money will be used to purchase simulation equipment with the remaining portion funding education for nursing instructors.

“That kind of training from the faculty down to the students could really help serve a need in the workforce and that’s fantastically trained nurses,” said Marcus Rosano, of Montgomery College.

Ncanana hopes to eventually give to others what she wishes she could have given her mother. “There are a lot of mothers out there, there are a lot of daughters, kids, brothers and sisters, that I can be able to help and that weighs heavy in my heart; that I wasn’t able to do it for my mom, I can do it for somebody else,” she said.