‘They can cry. They bleed.’ Artificial intelligence dummies changing Beaufort’s medical training

A $2.8 million workforce development center featuring manikins possessing artificial intelligence — so human-like that one is even described as “sassy”— has opened at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. The state-of-the-art facility is breaking ground in bed-side training for nurses and other medical workers while putting a dent in a nursing shortage plaguing Lowcountry communities.

The center was funded, in part, by a $1 million state earmark secured by the area’s local lawmaker delegation, including state Rep. Shannon Erickson, who operates a child-care center for the hospital. But Erickson and hospital officials say those public funds are being used exclusively for the PATH Career Development Center — People Achieving Their Highest Program — not for childcare.

The facility has four simulation labs, each equipped with a life-like manikin. Those manikins, which are powered by artificial intelligence, are providing a realistic setting to prepare new nurses and other healthcare employees before they start caring for real patients, whether that be inserting an IV catheter or assessing a pregnant mother. Experienced nurses now have a new location to sharpen their skills as well. The center is also a satellite training location for the nursing program at the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

Russell Baxley, the hospital’s president and CEO, described the use of AI and the state-of-the-art facility an “innovative disruption” in bedside training. Having an education center on the hospital campus, he added, will allow the hospital to “directly educate and train new members of the healthcare workforce.”

“This project is a critical investment in the future of our community,” Baxley said.

That investment comes as hospitals across the country are struggling to hire enough nurses.

Federal health care authorities project a shortage of 78,610 full-time RNs in 2025 and a shortage of 63,720 full-time RNs in 2030, according to a Health Workforce Analysis published by the Health Resources and Services Administration in November 2022. South Carolina is among the 10 states that are projected to have the largest nursing shortage by 2035.

The nursing shortage is even more pronounced in the Lowcountry because of population growth, said Dr. Kim Dudas, USCB’s assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs. Hospital and USCB officials say the training partnership is a step toward addressing the nursing shortage while offering students in rural communities the opportunity to receive a state-of-the-art educational experience working side-by-side with seasoned healthcare professionals.

The new PATH center is expected to increase the number of nursing graduates at USCB from 42 to 72, said Dudas.

AI manikins are the showpieces of the center and bring the very latest in high-tech simulation to health-care training. They are remarkably human-like.

Dummy tells nurses, “I think my ankle is broken.”

The 6,340-square foot enter, which also includes two 24-student classrooms, is located at BMH’s Medical and Administration Center, just across Ribaut Road from the hospital.

On Monday, as Beaufort Memorial officials showed off the new facility to the public, a manikin in a bed named Hal blinked his eyes. At one point, he wiped his mouth with his hand. Once, he spoke, saying, “I think my ankle is broken.”

Instructors can use the manikins to create various medical simulations that expose students to a variety of medical emergencies such as strokes, heart attacks and resuscitation, hospital officials say.

“It’s artificial intelligence so they can cry, they bleed, you can put them on a ventilator,” says Joy Solomon, the hospital’s director of education and workforce development. “You can do trauma cases. You can put in chest tubes.”

The center allows current employees to remain up to date in their training requirements, Solomon says. New nurse hires are also trained here.

Ashley Brown, a resource clinical coordinator and instructor, says Hal is the Cadillac of the AI bunch. He’s even got personality. “He’s a little sassy,” Brown says.

Hal and the others are allowing training in more invasive procedures — in real time — in a setting where mistakes can be made safely, Brown says. “He’s able to simulate legitimate emergency situations.”

Hal’s face can even droop like a real stroke patient’s would.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Brown says. “It’s very similar to assessing a patient in a clinical practice.”

In another room was a baby called Newbee who can cry.and a pregnant manikin named Victoria. “This manikin can actually give birth,” Soloman said.

Miami-based Guamard supplied the patient simulators. It designs, manufactures, and sells what it says are industry-leading simulation-based healthcare workforce training solutions for hospitals, universities, emergency medical services and military services worldwide.

Planning for the education center began in 2021 amid growing concerns about nursing shortages following the pandemic, according to the hospital. The PATH program was launched in May 2022 to provide training and certification opportunities for nurses, clinical medical assistants and technicians in patient care, phlebotomy and EKG.

Funding has come from local, state and federal sources, the hospital says.

Initial funding came in 2022, when Beaufort County and USCB each provided $500,000 for construction costs. The USCB funding was part of a $1 million award from Congress facilitated by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.

In 2023, the Beaufort City Council gave the program a $1.5 million grant it received from a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

In early 2024, the city of Beaufort contributed another $1 million to the effort. That money came from the Department of Public Safety as part of an earmark in the state appropriations bill approved by the state Legislature. The earmark was facilitated by Rep. Erickson. The same Erickson earmark for Beaufort also provided $1 million for maritime cybersecurity efforts for the Beaufort-based South Coast Cyber Center.

The entire $2 million earmark incorporated several stakeholder interests so she put it together and the funds were distributed to the city of Beaufort, she said. Erickson then asked the city to make sure the funding went to the right places.

Besides the $2.8 million in construction costs, funding has gone to develop the workforce development program, scholarships and hiring staff. The Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation also has raised $1 million for the workforce PATH program and center.