WATERVILLE — A ceremony was held Tuesday at Northern Light Inland Hospital marking the opening of a center that officials say will offer an enhanced training experience for nursing students, hospital staff and other health care workers.

The center, formally known as the Simulation Center for Healthcare Education and Excellence, relies on four manikins to give a more realistic understanding of various medical emergencies or situations. (A manikin is a human form used for medical or scientific purposes while a mannequin is one used to model clothing.)

The manikins at the Waterville hospital are technologically advanced, and pricey. Together they cost about $300,000. One replicates an adult patient, another replicates a child, a third a woman in labor and the final one is a neonatal manikin.

The launch of the center is a collaboration between the hospital and Purdue Global, which is an accredited online university that’s part of the Purdue University system based in Indiana. Inland Hospital is the fourth simulation center collaboration Purdue Global has in the country.

The Waterville manikins will be used as part of a Purdue nursing program and for a variety of Inland Hospital courses such as advanced life support and neonatal resuscitation.

“The more exposure that a clinical staff member has to any given situation, the more confident and comfortable they become,” said Courtney Cook, vice president of nursing and patient care services at Inland Hospital. “The ability to walk through the treatment process, without the high stress of a patient’s life at risk, is invaluable.”

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