Bert Simmons’ sickly face stares up from a hospital bed in a spacious room. Nearby, a baby in a white onesie lies in an infant warmer unit.

“They’re not very beautiful,” laughs Nancy Tucker, chair of the Pacific Union College nursing department, as she looks at the two $30,000 manikins in the nursing Simulation Lab.

The adult patient simulator was purchased with donations from nursing alumni and college funding and arrived in August of 2005. The lab houses his compressor and monitor, a mock nurses’ station, a “crash cart” for emergency scenarios, and the new SimBaby. On the other side of a one-way window, the control room allows instructors to manipulate the manikin’s reactions, including changes in heart rate, respiration, and vocal responses.

The Simulation Lab has been developed to provide a realistic hospital setting in which students can practice their nursing skills—a resource that nursing programs are utilizing more and more as clinical time in hospitals is harder to come by. “We feel that this is the wave of the future,” says Tucker.

This year, the lab took a huge step forward with the acquisition of SimBaby and improvements to equipment, funded by the Archie Tonge Education Fund.

The Tonge Fund was established in 1983 by the sons and daughters-in-law of Dr. Archie Tonge, a PUC alumnus and medical doctor who served in the U.S. Army during World War I, established Adventist hospitals and clinics in Africa, and founded Modesto City Hospital. “The Tonge Board is committed to supporting innovation, excellence and leadership in schools,” says John Collins, who has served as the Board’s CEO for five years.

The fund, which supports Adventist schools primarily in Central and Northern California, has contributed to PUC by funding the fiber network for high-speed computer access on campus, serving as a major donor in the construction of Chan Shun Hall, and assisting in many other projects.

“In approving the grant proposal for a simulation lab in the nursing department, I can say that the Archie Tonge Education Fund board was delighted in the concepts included in the proposal and believes that the lab will strengthen the nursing program at PUC,” says Collins.

Already the lab plays a significant role in the department and community. Scenarios will soon be a part of every aspect of nursing students’ training. “Students have been very positive,” Tucker says. “It gives them more confidence with what they can do.”

“They get to try things a little more on their own than they might be able to with real patients,” adds Shana Ruggenburg, ADN coordinator. “It’s a little less scary!”

The college has also made the lab, a valuable local resource, available for in-service training for St. Helena Hospital and recertification for the region’s ambulance company.