Running on (food) scraps Three Berkshire businesses turn to composting, Page 3
Rx for stronger economy
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Patricia Begrowicz column, Page 15
Berkshire Business Journal JANUARY 2023 | VOL. 2, NO. 1
Bridging the nursing gap
PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER
Above: Students at Berkshire Community College stabilize a simulated patient, known as a sim. The life-like mannequins have computer controls and vital signs, and can talk and exhibit realistic injuries. Below: The sims help to replicate the clinical scenarios and procedures the students will experience on the job.
Berkshire orgs turn to innovative equipment and expanded training programs to address a growing need By John Townes PITTSFIELD — The recent arrivals to Berkshire Community College’s nursing program include two mothers, two babies and two 5-year-old children. They have medical vital signs and respond to treatment. They look lifelike, but they’re not human. They’re simulated lab equipment, or sims — high-tech mechanical mannequins that serve as virtual stand-ins for human patients during training exercises. Nursing students use them
to replicate the clinical scenarios and procedures they will experience on the job. BCC is one of several local entities that are using items like these hightech training mannequins to respond to a serious shortage of nurses in the Berkshires by launching ambitious initiatives to recruit and train more residents for employment in this sector. Nursing jobs are available in the Berkshires. But the candidates to fill those vacancies are not. NURSING, Page 8