ESCANABA — Members of the Bay College Board of Trustees met “Ann” — a training mannequin that Bay nursing students will start using this semester — at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Simulation Technician and Lab Coordinator Nicole Wagner and Nursing Instructor Mary Schwalbach spoke about the role Ann will play in Bay’s nursing program. Wagner and Schwalbach were introduced by Vice President of College Advancement Kim Carne.

Carne said Ann was purchased with funds raised by the Bay College Foundation.

“We did a campaign last year for not this year’s annual fund, but the year before to raise money for Nurse Ann,” she said.

Ann is actually one of two identical mannequins purchased for nursing programs at Bay.

“She has a duplicate — a twin,” Carne said.

The other mannequin will arrive at Bay’s Iron Mountain campus at the end of the week. According to Wagner, the mannequins cost a combined total of about $40,000.

Students will be instructed to treat Ann like a real human patient.

“She is a part of our nursing family — she’s very much a pivotal part to the program, just like all our other simulators,” Wagner said.

Wagner said Ann has some features that will set her apart from other training mannequins used in the nursing program.

“She’s a little different than our other simulators, because she’s portable. She can sit up; our other mannequins are not really made to do that,” Wagner said.

Schwalbach noted Ann’s portability will allow the nursing program to use simulation technology in ways it was unable to do before.

“We can actually bring her into the classroom,” she said.

Ann is expected to help students remember what they learn in lectures while working in clinics and the real world, as well.

“It’s helping them make those connections and bringing that more solidly home,” Schwalbach said.

Wagner expressed her gratitude to members of the board for their continued backing of simulation technology at Bay.

“I just wanted to say thank you for the support of the sim program,” she said.

In other business, the board:

– was notified of a master articulation agreement with Lake Superior State University that President Laura Coleman signed Wednesday. Bay currently has 39 articulation agreements with LSSU.

“What Laura signed today allows students to access financial aid at Bay College for additional courses in a third year from us,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Matt Barron said.

– heard a presentation from Director of Institutional Research and Reporting Penny Pavlat. The presentation focused on statistical differences in Bay student outcomes based on socioeconomic factors, gender, race and other factors.

“Some of those gaps have definitely narrowed,” Pavlat said.

– went into closed session for a strategy discussion related to upcoming collective bargaining on Bay’s full-time faculty master agreement.

– changed the date of its February meeting from Feb. 19 to Feb. 26 due to a scheduling conflict.

– approved assignments for board committees in 2020.

– presented the TORCH Award to Enterprise Application Manager Jonathan Lane.