At Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, the Simulated Environment Teaching Hospital (SETH) is a cornerstone of healthcare education, offering students immersive and interprofessional training experiences to prepare them for real-life situations.
Located within St. Francis Hall on the FranU campus in Baton Rouge, SETH boasts a range of simulation suites, each mirroring critical areas of healthcare delivery, including intensive care, birthing suites, pediatric and neonatal units, emergency rooms and mental health and home health scenarios. These highly detailed environments are equipped with lifelike mannequins, high-fidelity monitors, electronic health record workstations and realistic equipment. SETH also includes exam and medical lab spaces, a nurse’ station, X-ray rooms and setups that mimic trauma care and telemedicine. Other environments include operating rooms, a physical therapy gymand medical surgical rooms.
“This teaches students how to actively intervene in real time. We are then able to observe how students manage a situation,” said Dr. Tabitha Jones-Thomas, Associate Dean, Simulated Clinical Education.“The equipment is very sophisticated. We program the computers to do what we need them to do, so the simulation can take many different routes.”
SETH also encourages interprofessional education by bringing together FranU students from various disciplines, including nursing, respiratory therapy, medical laboratory science, physical therapy, nutrition sciences and more. By collaborating within simulated, dynamic scenarios, students sharpen their technical abilities as well as their skills in critical thinking, teamwork, diagnostic reasoning and decision-making.
“We don’t want to stop a situation, because we need students to recognize what happens as a result of a correct intervention, as well as what happens when they don’t recognize the problem or don’t prioritize,” Dr. Jones-Thomas explained. “Afterwards, we have a really rich discussion and walk through all of the steps to see what happened.”
SETH’s simulation labs are integrated across Ա’s health sciences programs, which include associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, plus doctoral-level training. This means that no matter where a FranU student is in their journey to a healthcare career, SETH gives them valuable lessons for the future.
