DAYTON, Ohio — In most professions, hands-on leaning is often one of the best ways to understand the job.

This is especially true for people working in the medical field.

Cedarville University is welcoming a new, high-tech childbirth simulator to help nursing students prepare for real-life scenarios.

What You Need To Know

  • Childbirth simulator at Cedarville University named "Victoria" will be crucial for nursing students

  • Simulator provides a life-like approach to learning

  • Instructors can make "Victoria" react during delivery and can set up different birth scenarios

“We have Victoria and her baby Noelle and we are setting her up for a delivery,” said Nate Kincaid as he prepared the simulator.

Kincaid is an assistant professor with the School of Nursing at Cedarville University.

“She is definitely the most lifelike when it comes to this style of simulation for sure,” he said.

Her name is “Victoria” and her baby is “Noelle”.

They are the newest additions to the simulation lab and will be used by more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students once classes start back up.

“Victoria” even comes with different bellies, so students can feel the baby on the outside based on positioning.

“On the backside, it allows the professors to see what position the baby is actually in. So it gives them the opportunity to reset that for different students and to give them the opportunity to feel what that baby feels like inside of mom’s belly,” said Kincaid.

This one simulator costs about $90,000, but the possibilities are endless.

“They can set it to run however long they want it to run. They can do normal deliveries, they can do more complicated deliveries,” explained Kincaid.

During the class, Kincaid will sit behind a two-way mirror and program what happens next.

“As far as cough, we can make vomiting noise. We can control her heart rate, her respirations, her O2 sat,” he said.

He can get on a head-set and even make her talk.

“This allows us the opportunity to really give them that instant feedback to know what they do matters and how they do it, how they say things and how they interact with the patients. That can have an immediate on the patient and the outcome,” he said.

Kincaid hopes the new addition will help students sharpen their critical thinking and communication skills.

The previous childbirth manikin was purchased in 2012 and is much less lifelike.

Kincaid says “Victoria” is expected to be around for a very long time.