PATH Career Development Center

A state-of-the art simulation program is resource intensive and requires a large footprint. By combining forces, we share the costs and space associated with a center while fostering deeper connections between education and practice that benefits students and working healthcare professionals. That creates a well-trained workforce to better the health of our community.

The center includes four simulation labs, each equipped with a life-like simulation manikin and everything found in a hospital room so that training occurs with the same equipment in use at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. In addition, there are two debrief rooms to discuss simulation activities and two large classrooms.

Simulation is both a teaching method and tool to evaluate clinical skills and judgement. It provides a realistic setting to enhance what is learned in a classroom, practice clinical skills and assess competencies in a wide variety of clinical situations. It can prepare new clinicians before they begin caring for real patients and sharpen the skills of experienced healthcare teams to ensure they are ready for scenarios that happen infrequently but pose a potential high risk for patients.

Beyond practicing clinical skills, such as inserting an IV catheter, there is a heavy emphasis on enhancing the clinical judgment necessary for high-quality care and the best patient outcomes.

These are life-like manikins that react as if they were a real person. Our high-fidelity simulators can do all kinds of things a real person would do, including talk to you and respond to simple questions, turn their heads, cry, give birth to a baby, blink their eyes and more.

Simulation builds upon didactic material learned in the classroom. Skills can be learned, practiced and refined in a realistic clinical setting where mistakes can be made without risking patient safety. This safe environment helps learners develop competencies to manage real patient situations and enhances clinical judgement, teamwork and communication with patients and other members of the healthcare team.

Simulation is also used with experienced clinicians for ongoing professional development. In addition to learning and assessing proficiencies, simulation is used to maintain skills and response times for conditions that don’t frequently occur in the hospital.

Simulation is an important part of the learning process and adds value to the required clinical training hours for nursing students. Studies have demonstrated that simulation increases learning and develops clinical judgment that supports the transition to nursing practice following graduation.

Planning for the project began in 2021 and initial funding came in 2022, when Beaufort County and USCB committed $500,000 each to constructing the center. The USCB funding was part of a $1 million Congressionally Directed Spending award facilitated by Senator Lindsey Graham. Beaufort City Council approved amendments to its budget in 2023 and 2024, allocating $1.5 million from a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control grant and $1 million from the State of South Carolina’s Fiscal Year 2024 General Appropriations Act, of which $1 million went toward construction costs. In addition to providing space within the Beaufort Medical and Administrative Center, Beaufort Memorial and its Foundation covered the remaining equipment and construction costs.