Humber College and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) announce a partnership that will see a first-of-its-kind healthcare-education tool shared and expanded. The agreement between the two post-secondary institutions means BCIT students will gain access to the virtual town of Stillwell, while Humber students will get to see that town grow.
The town is a fictional community based on real places. Its inhabitants are just like real people—they come from different socio-economic backgrounds and deal with distinct issues. Through video episodes, photos, podcasts, digital stories, blogs, case notes and even a local newspaper, learners follow healthcare cases from the critical incident through its completion. The detailed resources help learners see different perspectives on the same case.
Students explore a series of critical incidents—cases that follow individual patients. For example, students meet fictional 17 year-old Vivian Wong in a car on the way to her high school graduation. In the first video, her car is struck by a drunk driver and she’s ejected 20 feet. We watch paramedics arrive and transport her by helicopter toward the hospital. Students can read about Vivian’s home life, her aspirations, her family, and her medical history.
“What’s remarkable about the characters from Stillwell, is that we’ll be able to integrate them into our state-of-the-art simulation dolls,” says James Rout, Associate Vice President, Education Support and Innovation at BCIT. “This means that when students come to our simulation labs, their robots patient dolls will also have names, backgrounds, and fulsome medical histories – just like they would see in a real hospital.”
Humber with the support of the government of Ontario created the Stillwell website to help its health sciences students understand the complex industry they’d be entering. It allows them to explore both the professional and social context of their future careers.
“The Humber-BCIT partnership provides a significant learning opportunity for both institutions. By broadening Stillwell content into scenarios that focus on BCIT’s areas of expertise, all learners will have the chance to experience more complex simulations, ensuring they are practice ready when leaving our respective programs,” said Jason Powell, dean, Humber School of Health Sciences.
Stillwell also goes to great lengths to feature inter-professional relationships. Paramedics discuss cases with nurses. Nurses and doctors work together with patients’ families. BCIT is excited to expand the site, and add the curriculum and expertise of 30 additional healthcare disciplines.
For example, in a case featuring a heart attack, the BCIT Sonography program could add diagnostics-related case documents to the patient file.
“This project enables both schools to share resources and faculty expertise across a larger number of professions in Canada,” says Connie Evans, an instructor with the BCIT School of Health Sciences. “Faculty in either school will be able to present students with a truly realistic inter-professional perspective of healthcare delivery.”
BCIT students get to visit Stillwell in this month.
About Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning
Established in 1967, Humber is one of Canada’s leading postsecondary institutions. Committed to student success through excellence in teaching and learning, Humber serves 29,200 full-time students and 23,000 part time and continuing education students. With an internationally recognized reputation for quality learning, Humber offers a wide-range of career-focused opportunities for students to personalize their educational path, including 160 full-time programs across more than 40 fields of study, 200 part-time and 400 online programs or courses. More than four out of five of Humber graduates are employed within six months of completing their studies. Visit humber.ca
About the British Columbia Institute of Technology
BCIT is one of BC’s largest post-secondary institutes, with five campuses, 300 programs, and more than 48,000 students each year. BCIT’s credentials range from certificates and diplomas to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in areas such as Applied and Natural Sciences, Business and Media, Computing, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Trades and Apprenticeships. Our programs are developed in consultation with leading employers and industry associations, and our instructors have years of industry expertise. With a history of excellence in applied education and research, industry partnerships, and economic impact, BCIT is developing real-world solutions born from real-world challenges.
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Media Enquiries
Andrew Leopold, Director of Communications, Humber College
T: +1 416 675 6622 ext. 4296
C: +1 416 518 8989
E: andrew.leopold@humber.ca
Jocelyne Leszczynski, BCIT Media Relations
T: +1 604 432 8306
E: jleszczynski2@bcit.ca