The first thing people notice when they step inside ECPI University’s new Mobile Simulation Lab is how much it feels like a hospital room, even though it sits inside an RV parked on the school’s campus.
Inside, two life-size mannequins lie in beds beneath shelves stocked with oxygen equipment and medical supplies. A mannequin the size of an infant rests nearby.
Simulators in the mannequins produce heartbeats and pulses, and nursing students use them to practice blood pressure checks, IV insertions and blood-drawing before they work with real patients.
“It’s basically a nursing lab on wheels,” said Barbara Larar, ECPI’s chief operating officer.
Larar said the goal is to bring hands-on training beyond the campus, especially for remote learning students who live far away or lack access to nursing labs in rural areas.
“We can deliver the didactic portion, the theory portion of our nursing programs online,” Larar said. “The mobile unit could go to some rural areas where we would be able to check off their clinical competency skills prior to going to their clinical rotations.”
With hospitals and clinics across Hampton Roads facing persistent nursing shortages, schools like ECPI have turned to mobile labs as a way to expand training opportunities and reduce barriers for future nurses.
A nursing lab travels
ECPI launched the mobile simulation lab this month, with plans to bring it to local high schools, career centers and healthcare partners across the region.
The RV is designed for small group instruction, with space for three to five students around each bed.
Stephanie Raj, ECPI’s manager of simulation operations, said the equipment inside the bus represents a significant investment. High fidelity simulators alone can cost between $50,000 and $90,000 each.
But Raj said the value goes beyond price: Many nurses never see this kind of technology again once they leave school, especially in smaller facilities such as nursing homes or rural clinics.
Raj hopes the mobile lab can fill that gap beyond ECPI’s own students.
The team took the unit to local high schools last week for information sessions. Prospective students and community members had a chance to step inside, see the technology up close, and learn what nursing training looks like in practice.
A different model at ODU
Instead of simulation, Old Dominion University's vehicle operates as a mobile health clinic, which has provided free care in underserved areas such as Southampton County and the city of Franklin since 2022.
“It’s a primary care office on wheels,” said Carolyn Rutledge, executive director of faculty practice and clinical scholarship at ODU’s School of Nursing.
The clinic includes exam rooms, lab space and telehealth capacity. Nurse practitioners and students see patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, and they also provide school physicals and immunizations.
Rutledge said the team didn’t start with its own plan. Instead, ODU’s staff began by asking local leaders in Southampton County and Franklin what residents needed most.
One early answer surprised them.
Schools, not clinics, surfaced as a major gap. Many children lacked required immunizations and school physicals, and some risked being removed from class.
Rutledge and the ODU students brought the mobile clinic directly to school sites, set up pop up clinics and worked with the Virginia Department of Health to provide vaccines and physicals.
“By having students involved in it, they develop a passion, and their goal with this has been to graduate a workforce that is interested in caring for some of the underserved populations,” Rutledge said.
