MORGANTOWN — Nurses around West Virginia will soon be honing their skills in the Ron and Stephanie Stovash Mobile Nursing Lab.
The 38-foot specialty vehicle is the result of a partnership between Mon Health System and West Virginia Junior College with the help of benefactors, including the Stovashes, the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust and The Health Plan.
“This groundbreaking simulation center on wheels will serve two main purposes. The first to augment the training of West Virginia Junior College nurses throughout north-central West Virginia,” said WVJC CEO Chad Callen. “Secondly, to serve as a training tool for currently practicing nurses and other health care professionals in the Mon Health System.”
The mobile training center has two patient care rooms set up to simulate a real care environment, Callen explained. There is a central control room and the patients are high-fidelity simulation mannequins. Up to 10 people can train inside at once and everything they do can be recorded so they can assess performance. Additional students can view the training on an exterior monitor.
Very few health care facilities have this kind of simulation technology and none in West Virginia currently have it, Callen said. WVJC and Mon Health are the first to bring the method to the state.
“It is a big day in West Virginia, we are growing our own, we’re advancing technology, we’re advancing access,” David Goldberg, Mon Health CEO, said. “And we’re doing it with great forward thinking proactive partners who know what it means to put money on the table for us to spend it appropriately, invest it appropriately and expand the access for those who we need at the bedside, to be able to be skilled and technologically advanced to have the best outcomes in north-central West Virginia.”
Ron Stovash is the board chair of Mon Health System and his wife Stephanie is the vice chair of the Mon Health Medical Center Foundation. Ron said they donated significantly to the project.
“One of the things we look for is how could we help Mon Health? But even beyond that, how could we help citizens here in the state and especially north-central West Virginia?” Stovash said. “And this was a perfect opportunity, because this mobile nursing lab will not just serve Mon Health and will serve any rural hospital, and it’s going to provide nurses with some skills that normally they don’t see.”
For example, one of the mannequins will be able to give birth complete with sounds, blood pressure to monitor and information to give nurses.
The announcement was made Monday and Ron said he expects the bus to be delivered this fall, with the exact timing depending on the supply chain.
Monday was also Ron’s 74th birthday.
Stephanie said it was a special day for them and she was proud to dedicate the mobile nursing lab in memory of their parents.
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