Nursing students to benefit from Freeman Health System gift

  Friday, October 18, 2019 12:00 PM
  Giving Back, Science and Technology, Alumni, News, Milestones

Pittsburg, KS

Kristy Hutchison had an excellent 49th birthday: The Wichita junior in the Irene Ransom Bradley’s School of Nursing at PSU received a gift like no other. 

Well, sort of. 

The gift wasn’t given just to her — it was to the entire School of Nursing, and it will be used by not just Hutchison and her fellow classmates, but students in the PSU Department of Biology, as well. 

It's called an Anatomage — a 3D virtual dissection table that will let students visualize anatomy at the highest level of accuracy using a life-sized, touch-screen experience. 

"It means our students can interact with and learn human anatomy beyond what a real cadaver offers,” said Cheryl Giefer, director of the school. 

The Anatomage, along with a complete overhaul of the school’s lecture hall to equip it for today's teaching and learning, was funded by Freeman Health System and recently was unveiled in a formal ceremony.  

During the ceremony, Associate Professor Amy Hite took attendees on a virtual journey through the cadaver’s heart and played a game against two students tasked with identifying parts of the anatomy and assessing next steps for treatment. CT scans that accompanied the virtual cadaver in the Anatomage  indicated a tumor, Hite noted. 

Hutchison, who was inspired to pursue a degree in nursing after surviving breast cancer and the loss of a child and interacting with nurses who treated them both, said she is grateful to Freeman Health System for providing funding for the room and the Anatomage. 

“It’s an amazing tool,” she said. “It will provide us with so many opportunities to learn, to practice memorizing and visualizing in a way we just can’t in a book. And the new lecture hall is beautiful. It makes me proud to be a student here.” 

Paula Baker, CEO of Freeman Health System and a PSU graduate, said the school’s nursing students are among the finest in the nation, and she’s pleased to be able to invest in them. 

“We know PSU has an accomplished and extraordinary faculty of teachers who inspire and influence the nurses of tomorrow. Lessons learned at PSU stay with students for a lifetime,” said Baker, who noted that Freeman has a solid training partnership with PSU nursing students and depends on PSU nursing graduates for advanced practice nurses and nurse leaders, a career in which qualified workers are in high demand. 

Giefer, who was a student in the School of Nursing from 1976-78 and joined the faculty in 1988, said the lecture hall renovation is now a visible reflection of the quality of instruction faculty are delivering and students are receiving.

Learn more about the School of Nursing: https://www.pittstate.edu/nursing/index.html