FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        February 22, 2007

OPEN HOUSE FOR KETTERMAN NURSING LAB PLANNED FOR MARCH 8

            A new state-of-the-art clinical skills lab for nursing students and health care professionals at Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Enid will have its open house on Thursday, March 8.

            The Emma Lee Tucker Ketterman Clinical Skills Lab will be presented to the public during a come-and-go reception from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the University’s campus, 2929 E. Randolph. A brief program is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

            The open house is being hosted by Northwestern, Northern Oklahoma College (NOC), St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Integris Bass Baptist Health Care Center.

            The lab provides learning opportunities for nursing students to develop clinical skills in a simulated, but realistic health care setting. The centerpieces of the lab include a computerized Sim-Man patient simulator and Nursing Anne that serve as valuable new tools to prepare students to identify health abnormalities and to effectively practice dealing with clinical emergencies before experiencing them with live patients.

            The simulators can breathe, have a pulse, maintain heart rhythm and blood pressure, make sounds and even respond to human touch.

            A specially-trained operator can program the simulators to present students with a range of health care situations, from routine care to emergency situations. Students must perform the appropriate assessments and treatments and the condition of the Sim-Man improves or deteriorates depending on the student’s interventions.

            Northwestern employed Kim Bruce, RN, MSN, as coordinator of the Ketterman Lab in July 2006.

            “This facility places Northwestern’s Division of Nursing on the cutting edge of technology in nursing education and we are thrilled and proud to have such a laboratory within our program,” said Dr. Carole McKenzie, CNM, RN, and chair of the Division of Nursing.  “We are most grateful to the Ketterman family and all of our partners in this endeavor.

“By establishing this partnership, we are giving student nurses and graduate nurses in the region the opportunity to utilize great technology in a very cost effective manner. It is a great example of improving all patient care in the region by working together.”

            Construction of the lab began in the fall of 2005 following a gift from Paul Ketterman of Goltry in memory of his late wife.

Emma Lee Ketterman was born on Feb. 13, 1943, in Holdenville and died at her home in Goltry on Oct. 15, 2004. Raised in Duncan, she received a master’s degree in music from Oberlin (Ohio) University and later attended the Julliard School of Music. She taught music and orchestra in New York City for five years and also performed as a concert pianist.

            Ketterman went on to attend the University of Oklahoma where she earned graduate degrees in library science and foreign language. She taught in schools at Barnsdall, Washington, Waurika and Mexico City before embarking on a 25-year teaching career in Pawhuska. She was a member of the Methodist Church at Pawhuska and served as the church organist.

            She married Paul Ketterman in Ardmore in 1972. The couple moved to Goltry in 1999.

            Following the gift from Ketterman, several entities partnered with Northwestern to equip and operate the lab, including both of Enid’s hospitals - St. Mary’s and Integris Bass Baptist - Northern Oklahoma College and the Northwest Area Health Education Center.

            The lab not only serves nursing students from Northwestern, but NOC as well. Continuing professional training for current health care providers also is available.

-NW-

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