Simulations may not be the real thing, but in order to provide the very best in emergency medical technician (EMT) training, Waubonsee Community College is putting its students in scenarios that are as close to real as possible.
 
EMT basic classes are now being offered at the renovated Aurora Fox Valley Campus which is also now the primary home to Waubonsee's health care programs, including the EMT lab which features a fully-equipped boxed ambulance, faux vehicles to recreate emergency responses after accidents, training dummies and plenty of space for hands-on, real-world training. It's located at 2060 Ogden Ave., on the Rush-Copley campus.
 
Andrea Montgomery, a fire science/emergency medical technician instructor at Waubonsee, taught a class Sept. 19, and said that having a single location to offer the classes will provide a better learning experience.
 
"For a while we had a classroom in Sugar Grove and another at the Plano campus so we had our supplies all over the place," she said. "In the older classrooms, we didn't have nearly as much space either. We'd have to shove tables out of the way to do scenarios and only had a small closet for supplies. Now we're all at one spot, which is much better. It's been great so far."
 
Although he has to travel a little bit to get to the Aurora campus, Sugar Grove resident Ryan Andrzejewski has been impressed with what he's seen in just a few weeks. The 2016 Kaneland High School graduate hopes to someday become a paramedic.
 
"This really is a perfect fit for me. I couldn't ask for anything more for the program and the training," he said. "It's close to where I live, it's affordable. I really lucked out."
 
Since the students will ultimately spend their careers working in emergency situations, the importance of training being as thorough as possible is something that's heavily emphasized.
 
"We want this to be as close to the real world as possible," Montgomery said. "If we didn't have this kind of space we couldn't have an ambulance like this, and we use the exact bags and cots you'd use in an ambulance today. They'll cut seat belts to get mannequins out of cars and they'll feel the pulse on them and put oxygen in them. There are a lot of real-world simulations that we can do a whole lot better now."
 
The EMT lab is just one of several labs that are now a part of the campus as programs are offered for future EMTs, medical assistants, nurses, nursing assistants, phlebotomists and surgical technologists.
 
The other labs include a medical assistant and phlebotomy lab designed to simulate a medical office, registered nursing lab with two simulation rooms to recreate hospital and emergency room scenarios, certified nurse assistant lab and a classroom featuring six hospital beds and a simulated restroom for training. A surgical technology lab allows for hands-on ,realistic experience with current equipment and procedures.
 
"It's really nice and a lot of nursing students will do clinicals right within these areas," college spokeswoman Kate Matty said. "There's also a lot of retirement and senior living areas nearby [for student] clinicals, so that works out pretty well."
 
The renovations also allowed for expanded student resources, including tutoring, a library and testing services.
 
"The faculty has been thrilled with how the new space works," Matty said. "They're trying to provide more hands-on learning and this definitely allows for that. We had some employers walk through already and they were really impressed to see how much it really does mimic a real work setting."
 
A tour and open house, which will also include a variety of family-friendly activities has been scheduled for Oct. 22. Visit www.waubonsee.edu for information.