UNMC has received a $5.5 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to use mobile, high-tech simulation trucks to provide training opportunities on life-saving procedures for rural emergency medical providers and hospitals.
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Speakers announcing the Simulation in Motion Nebraska grants at Tuesday’s press conference included, from left: UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D.; Shelley Stingley, rural health care program director, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; Nebraska Lt. Gov. Mike Foley; Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert; University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D.; UNMC’s Paul Paulman, M.D., principal investigator of the grant; and Jen Wolsleben, an EMT representing Cedar Bluffs Fire & Rescue. |
The trucks are valued at about $500,000 each and the manikins are valued at almost $900,000.
The grant will help fund program operation for three years. Private funding, partnerships, fee for services and state and federal grants will be sought to sustain the project after the first three years.
Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said he is excited to add a fourth state to the Simulation in Motion lineup. The program has been implemented in South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana.
“This partnership is a terrific opportunity to improve the health and lives of Nebraskans. Our rural emergency medical responders and rural hospitals face many obstacles to get this critical training,” he said. “Now, the training will come to them, which is very important in rural Nebraska.”
University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D., said rural Nebraska in particular will benefit from the grant.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust
The Helmsley Charitable Trust has funded over $44.6 million in grants throughout Nebraska, including a $3.5 million grant in 2012 to the Northern Great Plains Personalized Breast Cancer Program. The grant provides women living in rural Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming with greater access to personalized breast cancer care. The collaborative effort includes the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine, Avera Health’s Avera Cancer Institute, Sioux Falls, S.D., Trinity Health Cancer Center, Minot, N.D., Sheridan Memorial Hospital and Welch Cancer Center, Sheridan, Wyo.
“Simulation training is an exciting frontier in medicine that offers enormous potential for us to maximize our resources and extend our reach even further,” he said. “UNMC is a leader in this area. With this grant, UNMC and its partners will be able to continue their important work in meeting health care needs across our state. I thank the Helmsley Charitable Trust for its generous support, and all our first responders and health care providers for the life-saving work they do every day.”
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., said the partnership will expand UNMC’s education mission of training Nebraska’s health care workforce.
“The mobile simulation training trucks will provide a phenomenal advantage in training emergency medical service staff where every minute counts,” Dr. Gold said. “The mobile nature of this training also supports the vibrancy of communities since emergency responders won’t have to leave their families and businesses to get the training.”