The School of Nursing and Health Studies welcomed its newest member, GUS Junior, yesterday with a party and demonstration of GUS’s features.
GUS, the Georgetown University Simulator, is a 5-foot-9-inch, 175-pound full-sized simulated patient. Yesterday GUS’s brain lay on the counter as SNHS administrators led a tour past his body.
GUS is used by students in the SNHS in a new lab of the recently renovated St. Mary’s Hall and is one of the highlights of this week’s kickoff of the SNHS Centennial Celebration.
GUS Junior is the only one of its kind in the country, said Carol Rauen, who is GUS’s “mom.” GUS Junior replaces the older model of the simulator, GUS Senior.
“GUS allows students to practice with different situations in a real clinical setting,” said Centennial Coordinator Keavney Klein (NUR ‘02).
According to a brochure about the simulator, “GUS can morph from one line of symptoms to another at the touch of a computer key.”
This past weekend marked the official commencement of the nursing school’s Centennial Celebration, which will continue throughout the 2002-2003 academic year. More than 220 alums, administrators, and others involved in the SNHS attended events that included tours of St. Mary’s Hall, which is the main building of the SNHS.
Alumni were impressed with the renovation to St. Mary’s, according to Klein. Most alumni had not seen the building since their graduation, she said.
The Centennial Celebration is focused on the accomplishments that SNHS has achieved in the past century, such as the improved facilities, according to Klein.
Next week, the SNHS will be holding a number of student-centered events to commemorate the anniversary, including a barbecue on Copley Lawn, an ice cream social in Leavey Center and an open house in St. Mary’s. The week will conclude with the annual SNHS Fall Ball. All of the events are open to students from all schools.
“The idea of next week is to educate students from all the schools at Georgetown about the development and purpose of the SNHS,” Klein said. “We want everyone to get a glimpse of what really goes on in the school.”
Another aspect of the Centennial Celebration is the McAuley Lecture Series. Speakers will be invited to speak on a number of health related topics in order to increase awareness of current issues in the medical world, Klein said. The Centennial Celebration “coincides with a lot of progress in nursing science, our school and our faculty,” said Klein.
