The University of South Alabama College of Nursing is pleased to announce the opening of their new nursing classroom, lab and office space at the USA Baldwin County Campus is Fairhope, Alabama. Dean Debra Davis, and Associate Dean of the Baldwin County College of Nursing, Dr. Barbara Broome, welcomed 199 students into the new state-of-the-art classroom facilities on the first day of Summer semester, May 27, 2008.

The 20,503 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility provides nursing students with hands-on equipment including three computerized fully automatic Human Patient Simulators: a child, an adult male and a pregnant female. The simulators provide students hands on experience managing complex patient care situations. Heart attacks, gunshot wounds, asthma attacks, and seizures are just some of the conditions that can be simulated.

The adult male is an iStan which is the first human patient simulator based around a human-like skeletal structure. iStan also closely mimics the anatomical workings of the human body to a level of realism not possible with other simulators. Spine, neck, arms and hips all move with incredible life-like accuracy. Modeled from a unique cast of a real person, the skin of iStan truly acts, looks and feels like real human skin. The University of South Alabama is the only school in the southeast region and the only non-military institution to have an iStan.