FARMVILLE – Longwood University's nursing program is just what the doctor ordered for a state suffering from a nursing shortage.

And that prescription was celebrated Tuesday with the formal dedication and ribbon cutting for the Edward I. Gordon Clinical Simulation Learning Center, named for the Farmville physician who donated $1 million for the state-of-the-art center.

The center is able to simulate a hospital environment, with hi-tech manikins that can respond in very human-like ways to provide students with a virtual reality learning experience.

One of the manikins-Sim Man 3G-can blink, experience dilated pupils, bleed, cry, and sweat, for example.

“You cannot help being impressed by the center and the technology that our students will have the opportunity to use to aid in their learning,” LU president Patrick Finnegan told those packing the third floor facility in Stevens Hall. “This center puts our program on the cutting edge of educating and training these student nurses to help prepare them to be among the very best in their profession.”

President Finnegan described the new nursing program as “a tremendous addition to Longwood's academic program, which also serves a great need in Southside Virginia. Our state has 624 nurses for every 100,000 residents, lagging well behind the national average of 746.”

In the last few years, he noted, Virginia has fallen from 40th to 45th among states in nurses per capita.

“This program and these students are directly involved in Longwood's aim of graduating citizen leaders who contribute to the overall good of society. Having been married to an RN for almost 40 years now,” President Finnegan said, “I have a deep appreciation for what nurses do to assist those in need.”

So does Dr. Gordon, not only from his own medical practice but his late wife, Loretta, was also a nurse, as are his three daughters.

“I see such potential here,” Dr. Gordon said, reflecting on the intersection of technology, faculty and students, “and I've got probably more exposure than most physicians do to some of the things that you're seeing today. The amount of things that can be done here just appear to be endless and the growth potential of this is also endless.

“And at the bottom of all this,” the member of Farmville's Town Council and Longwood's Board of Visitors continued, “is the fact that the nursing students that go through this program are going to save lives and they're going to save lives in a way that is so different than in the past because they'll go into their first clinical experiences with live people who actually talk back to them and know that to do, and have been through some of the horrors of the mistakes that were made in the simulation lab but not in the real world.”

Longwood University's Nursing Program opened its doors to students in the fall of 2009 and the clinical simulation center, said Dr. Melody Eaton, Chair of the nursing program, “will play a key and integral role” in its success.

“It will offer experiential learning in a safe environment. Students will enhance their knowledge, critical thinking skills, and confidence in caring for patients,” she said.

The center includes a birthing bed and a birthing simulator that can simulate the delivery of a neonate, with students able to assist with uncomplicated and complicated deliveries.

A pediatric crib is equipped with a Sim Baby with realistic features and lifelike clinical feedback-it can even turn blue.

There is also a Med-Surg or critical care lab with simulated patients who can suffer heart attacks and other medical emergencies.

President Finnegan praised Dr. Eaton and her faculty for having “set a great course for this nursing program for future years.”

A university president has many varied duties, he said, “but there are few as pleasant as this. The opportunity to recognize a vitally important new academic program, while acknowledging and thanking the benefactors who helped make this exciting growth possible. Thanks again, Dr. Gordon, for your outstanding support of this center, for your enthusiasm for our nursing program and for all your efforts on behalf of Longwood University. You're helping us make a difference in the lives of our students who we know will go on to assist and serve others in an area of great need for our Commonwealth and our nation.”

(In addition to Dr. Gordon's lead donation of $1 million, the largest ever to LU by a local resident, additional grants and funding for the center's simulation equipment, audio-video instructional technology and furnishings were awarded by the Virginia Tobacco Commission, the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and the Marietta McNeill and Samuel Tate Morgan, Jr. Foundation).