Durham Tech receives $400,000 grant to purchase high-tech, interactive equipment

Durham Tech has received a $400,000 High-Cost Healthcare Grant from the North Carolina Community College System to expand and strengthen its Emergency Medical Science program.  

“This money will absolutely take our program to the next level through the purchase of several innovative pieces of equipment,” said Steve Wilson, Durham Tech’s EMS program director. “We will share the state-of-the-art equipment and learning opportunities with our regional partners, including EMS agencies, police departments and hospitals. This equipment has not been available to any of us prior to this. There is nothing like it in Durham or Orange counties. Our instructors will be trained on all of it to get the most from our purchases while also being able to assist our community partners with the use of the equipment.”

The College will use a portion of the grant to purchase an indoor ambulance that will give the students the experience of riding in the back, simulating different road conditions.  

“This top-of-the-line, full back box of an ambulance puts students in an environment where they must work in the limited space, deal with the movement of the vehicle and continuously communicate with the patient and each other,” Wilson said.

The College also will use a portion of the $400,000 to create an immersion room. This room is an additional situational tool for instructors and students. Instructors will control every part of the virtual reality experience -- the emergency the students will encounter, the number of people requiring assistance and even the detail of the smell of the room.  

“This immersion room will be huge for us. The room will have a projection system on each wall with a control system that will be staffed by the instructors who are able to make immediate changes to the situation,” Wilson said. “This room will trigger all the senses and make it all very real.”

EMS and EMT students will learn to think critically, allot resources and communicate quickly and efficiently. The room will help hone these skills, in addition to a debriefing session between the instructor and students where footage from the simulation will be broken down, discussed and best practices developed.

“The best part about this equipment is that each provides for a fail-safe environment,” Wilson said. “Both the ambulance back box and immersion room will involve muscle memory and real-life situations.  Our students will remember their time working in each and apply their knowledge to situations they encounter on the job. They will be much more prepared.”

The ambulance back box and immersion room will be available to community partners like hospitals and EMS agencies. There will also be a continuing education classroom available on campus.

The remainder of the funds will be spent on upgraded mannequins that are life-like with real-life and real-time actions and reactions when students use them to practice medical treatments.

“Receiving these grant monies is a game changer for us,” Wilson said. “It will be an enrollment draw. We can get high school students involved and interested in the field and for those going into the EMS field where tech is so important we will be the go-to place. Now Durham Tech has state-of-the-art equipment, and we are ready to use it fully.”