CSM Nursing Educators Create New Product

A friendship that started in the Health Sciences Division of College of Southern Maryland has turned into an entrepreneurship opportunity for Liz Benson and Linda C. Goodman. Through their experience observing nursing students on a simulation manikin, the two realized there was a need for a device that also made use of communication skills, and from there, their company B&G Educational Innovations, and their product, ReaLifeSim, were born.

The two recently competed with 190 other teams for funding and won a top prize of $120,000 in Microsoft Office support and services, as well as the opportunity to take a seat at a business accelerator course. ReaLifeSim, a product that teaches nursing students the technical skills they need and the communication skills that their profession demands, is being developed now in Florida. The prize they won was through Jacksonville’s One Spark Ventures, an opportunity of which they learned from their patent attorney.

The device came about because students are taught many procedures on manikins, which do not ask questions or provide feedback; this teaches the students technical skills but nothing about communicating with a patient or building trust. The device can be worn by “patients” who are helping to train the students, giving the students a chance to practice inserting an IV or other medical procedures on a real person, but without actually performing the procedure yet. Benson and Goodman came up with the idea to bring more realism to the manikins.

“I thought of a ‘tat’ sleeve — a flesh-colored sleeve used to cover tattoos — that I knew people wore when going on job interviews,” Ms. Benson said. “I wondered if the sleeves could be outfitted to have technology similar to that in the manikins that track the progress of each user. Why couldn’t we rig equipment to simulate inserting an IV, drawing blood, taking vital signs?”

The brainstorming session continued and over the next several months, Liz Benson sketched out arm and leg sleeves, bib-style chest devices, gloves, and socks. She also took a course on business start-ups and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, Ms. Goodman worked on learning objectives and device instructions that would be part of using them for training and identifying materials that could be used in production.

Once they have affordable training sleeves (less expensive than a textbook) in the hands of students across America, the entrepreneurs intend to develop the remainder of the product line and expand distribution to a worldwide market.

Ms. Goodman is a nursing professor and coordinator of the simulation labs on CSM’s three campuses, with degrees in nursing from University of Phoenix, nursing education from Stevenson University, and a post-graduate certificate in clinical simulation from Boise State University. Ms. Goodman has 35 years of experience in the management and operation of long-term care facilities and has been an educator for 28 years. A recognized leader within Maryland’s health care simulation community, she combines her clinical expertise and a passion for teaching when preparing and mentoring future generations of nurses.

Ms. Benson, a Level III certified adjunct professor of biology and nutrition at CSM and the ‘B’ in BGEI, has degrees in biotechnology/life sciences from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, nursing from Drexel University, and education from Regent University. She is also a faith community nurse through Duke University. Throughout her 35 years of nursing, Ms. Benson’s clinical focus has been on emergency services and cardiac critical care. She has been an educator for 25 years, developing and teaching courses in higher education, hospitals, and private schools.

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