news release

A room at the Indian River State College Pruitt Campus in Port St. Lucie has been named in recognition of VITAS Healthcare—a leading provider in end-of-life care with locations ranging across 14 states and the District of Columbia. The VITAS Healthcare Simulation Room houses a state-of-the-art, end-of-life human patient simulator donated by VITAS, providing immersive and true end-of-life patient encounter experiences for students in IRSC Nursing program.

“VITAS is proud to support the next generation of healthcare and hospice professionals,” said Susan Acocella, General Manager for VITAS. “With a growing focus on compassionate end-of-life care, this kind of technology exposes students to patient symptoms and end-of-life scenarios that are instructive, safe, and as real as possible. Providing this technology is one way that we can contribute to students’ understanding and delivery of empathetic hospice care.”

The IRSC Nursing program takes a holistic approach to prepare students for a career in healthcare. This includes the critical aspect of palliative care education. In the VITAS Healthcare Simulation Room, students train on how to respond in scenarios that include communication skills and understanding family dynamics between the patient’s family members regarding how to proceed with their loved one’s care. Students can evaluate their performance with the professor post-simulation, tracking progress as they go through their clinicals.

To learn more information about the donation, visit https://www.irsc.edu/news/articles/irsc-receives-vitas-donation-for-hospice-simulator-052820.html.