The bunnies were a hit at De-stress Fest. Photo courtesy of Austin Cervantes.
It’s hard to compete with bunnies. A guest appearance from eight adorable rabbits from Happy Tails Mobile Petting Zoo and Animal Sanctuary in Boerne stole the limelight at the recently held De-stress Fest, a biannual Student Life event offering a plethora of activities to help students unwind before their final exams.
Hundreds of students gathered at the Lecture Hall commons for the event, many of whom jumped at the opportunity to hold, pet and visit with some furry friends in the grassy area in front of the Medical School Building.
Students held, hugged and visited with the bunnies. Photo courtesy of Austin Cervantes.
“The students loved the bunny petting zoo,” said Austin Cervantes, program coordinator, Office of Student Life. “They could not get enough of the bunnies, who were showered in love and starred in many pictures with students. It was a great way for our students to take a break for a few minutes out of their busy day and destress by petting or cuddling with the bunnies. We will definitely bring the bunnies back again in the future.”
Animals have consistently been a hit during past De-stress Fest events. Last November, students reveled in petting several therapy dogs brought by Paws for Services volunteers.
This time, bunnies were suggested, Cervantes said.
“Students consistently request for our office to bring in animals for stress relief,” Cervantes said. “One of the suggestions was to bring bunnies.”
De-stress Fest provided students an opportunity to play games, enjoy free massages and visit numerous tables where they could learn about campus offerings.Photo courtesy of Ben Rivers.
The event — held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 23 — provided students an opportunity to play games, enjoy free massages and visit numerous tables where they could learn about campus offerings.
“We try to provide an event on campus that surprises our students; bunnies to hug and hold, free massages, random games along with the different departments to answer their questions, all before final exams to start creating some stress relief,” said Ben Rivers, associate director of student activities.
Students also enjoyed the opportunity to speak with representatives from financial aid, educational support services, counseling the campus police department and Gold’s Gym at the event.
Each year, National Nurses Week encourages nurses, other health care professionals, employers, community leaders and the public to recognize and promote the vast contributions and positive impact of America’s nurses.
National Nurses Week begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nightingale was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician who is considered to be the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale’s impact on health professions is vast. She developed modern hospital architecture, organization, records and infection control; advanced military healthcare for soldiers and veterans; as well as furthered hospital epidemiology, infographics and evidence-based care.
Everyone is indebted to nurses for their unwavering commitment to patients, their communities and our health care system. That’s why this May 6-12, the university is celebrating Nurses Week with the theme, “Nurses Make the Difference.” Celebrating, honoring and supporting nurses during Nurses Week provides an opportunity to promote the value of nursing and advocate for the profession.
Celebrate with UT Health San Antonio this year by thanking a nurse. UT Health San Antonio would like to thank all of the nursing students, faculty and staff across all areas of the university for their contributions to the institution and for helping to Make Lives Better for patients.
The campus community is invited to join Acting President Robert Hromas, MD, FACP, for a President’s Forum on Monday, May 13, at the Pestana Lecture Hall on the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus.
Attendees can learn about the university’s continued growth and significant initiatives underway that position UT Health San Antonioto best meet the needs of the community.
A light lunch will be provided immediately following the session for those attending in person.
This event will be recorded and a link will be shared after the event.
ames Cleveland, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Simulation Innovation at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, shows off Hal, a talking mannequin, to visitors from the Sigma Theta Tau International Society of Nursing late last year.
Life-like mannequins train students, health care professionals
Hal, the talking mannequin that’s a centerpiece of a simulation training lab at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, comes with life-like head and facial movements and the occasional attitude of a youthful patient.
“Hello, my name is Hal. And if you talk to me, I’ll talk back,” he greets guests touring the lab, cheerfully at first. “How are you doing, Hal?” asks James Cleveland, PhD, RN, the lab’s director and tour guide this day.
“I want to go home!” Hal shoots back.
Cleveland is shown with Vivien, a life-like mannequin.
Yes, most everything at the school’s Center for Simulation Innovation is intended to prepare nursing students and professionals for patients they might encounter in a hospital or clinic – from a petulant young boy to the elderly, including a woman portrayed here by a mannequin named Vivien with skin that seems creepily real to the touch. One housekeeper, horrified, asked to be reassigned shortly after encountering the mannequins the first time during night-time cleaning rounds.
But the lab now has something else: accreditation from the prestigious Society for Simulation in Healthcare in the area of Teaching/Education, making the school one of only three statewide with the much sought-after designation at this level. No schools in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin have it.
“It’s an international body and it truly validates the work we do at the highest level, showing that we are on par with industry standards for simulation delivery,” Cleveland said. “Not just with nursing, but it’s a large tent. We are on par for all inter-professional education activities.”
Lou Ann Click, manager of simulation support, checks in on mannequin Victor.
The Center for Simulation Innovation is a 7,300-square-foot simulation hospital and 6,500-square-foot skills laboratory for training students and health care professionals, on the bottom floor of the School of Nursing at UT Health San Antonio’s main campus. It started in 2013, with a single room and mannequin, and has had many expansions and upgrades since.
The facility operates clinical practice laboratories and associated technology-based initiatives to deliver an optimal simulated learning experience. State-of-the-art technology provides high-, medium- and low-fidelity mannequins and other learning resources to train students and health professionals in the region.
Even simulated babies at the lab can move.
Hal’s voice and movement are controlled from a computer panel in the next room, on the other side of a window blocked from Hal’s side by art screens, and his eyes frequently blink and follow students and others tending to him. He holds court from a hospital bed and wears a hospital gown.
“Hal itself has a voice modulator where you could do your voice at a low pitch or high pitch,” said the man behind the curtain – in this case, the window – who provides Hal’s voice: Braulio Amezaga, MA, audio-visual manager, tech supervisor and education support specialist. “So, I just move it to a high pitch so that when I speak, I sound like a 5-year-old boy.”
Other mannequins range from Vivien – “You can do IVs on her,” Cleveland said – to expectant-mother Victoria and a maternity ward with newborns in individual cribs. Victoria also can talk and has eye movement, and even the babies can move.
Cleveland and Click hold “skins” that update mannequins that still seem real in function but no longer in appearance.
“The goal is to use this at all levels of education,” Cleveland said, including for the region’s first nurse anesthetist program, training registered nurses to become Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, that begins in August. He said a room already is targeted for the program, and will have specialized simulation techs working with faculty.
They could use Hal for anesthesia, as spinals can be performed on the mannequin, as well as intubation. Spinal blocks could be used on Victoria during delivery simulation.
Getting the Society for Simulation in Healthcare accreditation was a rigorous two-year process, involving faculty and staff, Cleveland said, but worth it. “It took a village,” he said. There are other accreditations or at smaller levels, but this one is the over-arching authority.
Simulation services include hands-on assistance in the use of technology and adjunct learning resources, with specialized simulations offered.
The lab resembles a hospital setting.
The facility is available to faculty and students on campus as well as to health care providers and companies.
For more information about the Center for Simulation Innovation or to book a learning resource, contact Cleveland at clevelandj@uthscsa.edu, 210-567-5862, or go here.
James Cleveland, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Simulation Innovation at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, shows off Hal, a talking mannequin, to visitors from the Sigma Theta Tau International Society of Nursing late last year.
Life-like mannequins train students, health care professionals
SAN ANTONIO, April 30, 2024 – Hal, the talking mannequin that’s a centerpiece of a simulation training lab at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, comes with life-like head and facial movements and the occasional attitude of a youthful patient.
“Hello, my name is Hal. And if you talk to me, I’ll talk back,” he greets guests touring the lab, cheerfully at first. “How are you doing, Hal?” asks James Cleveland, PhD, RN, the lab’s director and tour guide this day.
“I want to go home!” Hal shoots back.
Cleveland is shown with Vivien, a life-like mannequin.
Yes, most everything at the school’s Center for Simulation Innovation is intended to prepare nursing students and professionals for patients they might encounter in a hospital or clinic – from a petulant young boy to the elderly, including a woman portrayed here by a mannequin named Vivien with skin that seems creepily real to the touch. One housekeeper, horrified, asked to be reassigned shortly after encountering the mannequins the first time during night-time cleaning rounds.
But the lab now has something else: accreditation from the prestigious Society for Simulation in Healthcare in the area of Teaching/Education, making the school one of only three statewide with the much sought-after designation at this level. No schools in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin have it.
“It’s an international body and it truly validates the work we do at the highest level, showing that we are on par with industry standards for simulation delivery,” Cleveland said. “Not just with nursing, but it’s a large tent. We are on par for all inter-professional education activities.”
Lou Ann Click, manager of simulation support, checks in on mannequin Victor.
The Center for Simulation Innovation is a 7,300-square-foot simulation hospital and 6,500-square-foot skills laboratory for training students and health care professionals, on the bottom floor of the School of Nursing at UT Health San Antonio’s main campus. It started in 2013, with a single room and mannequin, and has had many expansions and upgrades since.
The facility operates clinical practice laboratories and associated technology-based initiatives to deliver an optimal simulated learning experience. State-of-the-art technology provides high-, medium- and low-fidelity mannequins and other learning resources to train students and health professionals in the region.
Even simulated babies at the lab can move.
Hal’s voice and movement are controlled from a computer panel in the next room, on the other side of a window blocked from Hal’s side by art screens, and his eyes frequently blink and follow students and others tending to him. He holds court from a hospital bed and wears a hospital gown.
“Hal itself has a voice modulator where you could do your voice at a low pitch or high pitch,” said the man behind the curtain – in this case, the window – who provides Hal’s voice: Braulio Amezaga, MA, audio-visual manager, tech supervisor and education support specialist. “So, I just move it to a high pitch so that when I speak, I sound like a 5-year-old boy.”
Cleveland and Click hold “skins” that update mannequins that still seem real in function but no longer in appearance.
Other mannequins range from Vivien – “You can do IVs on her,” Cleveland said – to expectant-mother Victoria and a maternity ward with newborns in individual cribs. Victoria also can talk and has eye movement, and even the babies can move.
“The goal is to use this at all levels of education,” Cleveland said, including for the region’s first nurse anesthetist program, training registered nurses to become Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, that begins in August. He said a room already is targeted for the program, and will have specialized simulation techs working with faculty.
They could use Hal for anesthesia, as spinals can be performed on the mannequin, as well as intubation. Spinal blocks could be used on Victoria during delivery simulation.
Getting the Society for Simulation in Healthcare accreditation was a rigorous two-year process, involving faculty and staff, Cleveland said, but worth it. “It took a village,” he said. There are other accreditations or at smaller levels, but this one is the over-arching authority.
Simulation services include hands-on assistance in the use of technology and adjunct learning resources, with specialized simulations offered.
The lab resembles a hospital setting.
The facility is available to faculty and students on campus as well as to health care providers and companies.
For more information about the Center for Simulation Innovation or to book a learning resource, contact Cleveland at clevelandj@uthscsa.edu, 210-567-5862, or go here.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is one of the country’s leading health science universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions, graduate biomedical sciences and public health have graduated more than 42,550 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” UTHealthSA.org.
Hal’s voice and movement are controlled by computer from the other side of windows displaying art screens.
The UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing offers five academic programs, consisting of the BSN, DNP and PhD degrees and specialty certificates, and is dedicated to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the nursing profession. First-generation college students represent one-third of its enrollment. The School of Nursing also operates a growing patient-care practice that provides primary and acute care by nurse practitioners, both on campus and at a variety of community partner sites. To learn more, visit https://www.uthscsa.edu/academics/nursing.
Sukeshi Patel Arora, MD, medical oncologist and leader ofthe gastrointestinal malignancies. program at Mays Cancer Center
Colorectal cancer is now the primary cause of cancer-related deaths among young men under 50 and the second leading cause among women in the same age group, according to the American Cancer Society.
“If I were asked the average age of a patient when I finished residency 16 years ago, my answer would be different,” she said. “Now, at least 1/3 of my patients are under 50.”
Colon and rectal cancers are tumors of the large intestine. Risk factors for developing the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include inflammatory bowel disease, family history and in rare cases an inherited trait.
Certain lifestyle choices can also increase the risk of developing the disease. These include a lack of regular exercise and a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables, as well as one low in fiber and high in fat and processed meats. Being overweight or obese, along with the use of alcohol and tobacco, can also elevate the risk for developing the disease.
Colorectal cancer symptoms
Colorectal cancer can start as a polyp or small, abnormal grouping of cells in the colon’s lining. Logue said polyps can develop and mutate into cancer slowly, and symptoms are common enough that patients ignore them.
“The symptoms are oftentimes subtle and attributed to common life circumstances, such as fatigue, stress or difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” Logue said. “It’s not unusual for most of us to have symptoms such as occasional stomach discomfort, fatigue, constipation or seeing small amounts of blood in the stool. They are symptoms that can easily be dismissed or attributed to less serious conditions.”
Logue said the following symptoms should prompt a visit to the doctor: change in bowel habits, rectal bleeding, persistent fatigue and unexplained anemia.
Regular screenings are the best way to prevent developing the disease and the gold standard for screening is a colonoscopy. If polyps are found during the screening, they can be removed before they progress into cancer.
Alternate screenings, such as stool sample tests, can be up to 95% effective in detecting cancer.
The Mays Cancer Center offers a specialized chemotherapy delivery system called hepatic artery infusion, also known as HAI pump therapy, for colorectal cancer patients who have tumors that are inoperable and have spread to the liver.
The latest treatment options for personalized care
Treatment plans for patients are as individual as the patient. Following a patient’s diagnosis and tumor removal surgery, a multidisciplinary team of doctors convenes to devise a personalized treatment strategy that could include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and other therapies.
In some cases, colorectal cancer patients have tumors that are inoperable and spread to the liver. For these patients, the Mays Cancer Center offers a specialized chemotherapy delivery system called hepatic artery infusion, also known as HAI pump therapy.
Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the hepatic artery infusion pump is a palm-sized device implanted below the skin in the abdomen while the patient is under anesthesia. It is designed to deliver high doses of chemotherapy safely to patients living with colorectal cancer and bile duct cancer (intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma) that have spread to the liver.
“Having HAI therapy available at the Mays Cancer Center to treat patients whose cancer cannot be removed completely
Colin Court, MD, PhD, director of regional therapies at Mays Cancer Center and assistant professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, speaks to a patient.
through surgery is pivotal,” said Colin Court, MD, PhD, director of regional therapies at Mays Cancer Center and assistant professor at UT Health San Antonio.
Court, a surgical oncologist, said the HAI pump is powered by the patient’s body heat to continuously administer chemotherapy directly through the hepatic artery, a vessel that provides blood to the liver. Once implanted, a medical oncologist oversees the patient for the duration of the treatment or the lifetime of the therapy.
“Hepatic artery infusion is a treatment option available for patients to shrink liver metastases to get to surgery, to prevent recurrence in the liver after a liver resection, or to offer another line of treatment when traditional systemic chemotherapy is no longer working,” said Sukeshi Patel Arora, MD, medical oncologist and leader of the gastrointestinal malignancies program at Mays Cancer Center. “The procedure is considered another line of treatment and offers not only control of the cancer, but also allows patients to live longer and gives a chance for a cure.”
A National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center, Mays Cancer Center is currently one of only two facilities in Texas offering HAI therapy. Prior to the advent of HAI therapy, patients received traditional chemotherapy, administered through a vein and into the bloodstream to reach the liver. HAI therapy is localized and precisely targets tumors. It delivers up to 400 times higher drug concentration than standard chemotherapy, with minimal side effects.
“This therapy gives our patients hope, limiting toxicity elsewhere in the body, and allowing them to continue their daily activities without disruptions,” Court said.
The Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio is one of only four National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. The Mays Cancer Center provides leading-edge cancer care, propels innovative cancer research and educates the next generation of leaders to end cancer in South Texas. To learn more, visit cancer.uthscsa.edu.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), a primary driver of San Antonio’s $44.1 billion health care and biosciences sector, is the largest academic research institution in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of $413 million. Driving substantial economic impact with its six professional schools, a diverse workforce of more than 8,500, an annual expense budget of $1.46 billion and clinical practices that provide 2.6 million patient visits each year, UT Health San Antonio plans to add more than 1,500 higher-wage jobs over the next five years to serve San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit UTHealthSA.org.
