On Friday, Feb. 5, Northwest Mississippi Community College’s School of Health Sciences held a “show and tell” event to demonstrate how the school has benefited from CARES Act funding.

Through $1,599,743 in funding provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the School of Health Sciences was able to purchase equipment that is elevating students’ skills training experiences.

“It has impacted our programs across all of our 11 districts,” said Dr. Stephanie Mullins, dean of the School of Health Sciences. “This money has opened up opportunities for our students to learn in so many new ways, and provided more of that hands-on training that is so desperately needed in health care facilities.”

According to Mullins, much of the equipment is typically found at four-year universities, but not typically available to community colleges.

“It has gotten students excited about health care, and faculty so excited about teaching,” Mullins said.

Some of the equipment that faculty and students are most excited about includes simulation mannequins, a 3-D, touchscreen imaging table and electronic medical records.

“The mannequins are awesome in the way that when clinical sites shut down and we weren’t able to get our students into some of these facilities, the simulation mannequins provided our students with these hands-on opportunities,” Mullins said. “We have a birthing mannequin, and we can practice prenatal care, labor and delivery and even a baby-after-birth simulation.”

The 3-D anatomy table is not only being utilized by students in the School of Health Sciences, but is also available to all science programs. Additionally, with the days of paper patient charts behind us, students are using newly purchased electronic medical records to get students into the practice before they actually begin their careers.

With the 2020-2021 school year looking a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mullins said she wondered at the start whether students would be nervous to enter health care. However, she said students are more excited than ever to serve others.

“Our motto at the School of Health Sciences is that you serve one to serve all,” she said. “As faculty, we serve one student, and that student is going to serve a patient. We’re going to multiply across the state, and hopefully have a real impact on health care in the state of Mississippi in helping to improve patient care.”

For more information about Northwest’s health care programs, visit northwestms.edu/healthsciences.

Photo: Ebone Dukes (center), director of the Funeral Service Technology program,  demonstrates the functions of the college’s new anatomy imaging table for (from left) Dr. Matthew Domas, vice president of Academic Instruction and College Parallel Programs, Jeff Horton, vice president of Finance and Administration, and Dr. Carolyn Wiley, associate vice president of Academic Instruction. The table, purchased with CARES Act funds, is available to all Northwest science programs.