Paul Boehlke/KTVB

This new mannequin simulates real-life childbirth, helping medical personnel simulate high-risk birthing situations.

BOISE - A lifelike robot is giving local health professionals and students a chance to practice life saving skills - without the risk of harm.

See how it works

The human patient simulation lab at Idaho State University in Boise features nine mannequins that stand in for people.

But now one of the mannequins gives birth!  Nurses no longer have to rely on real-life emergencies to get on-the-job training

Instead, a mannequin named Noelle gives birth to a sim baby, giving medical professionals and students real life experience with life threatening problems.

"We come in together to do simulations to practice high risk deliveries or just regular deliveries to get better at teamwork and communication, in preparation for scenarios that we may encounter,” Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center’s Family Maternity Center manager Debbie Ketchum said.

Noelle’s baby helps bring the simulations to life.

"Having the babies is real critical for us,” NICU nurse Ron Olsen said. “Listening to the heart sounds and listening to the heart rate are very accurate. We can actually feel pulses on it like you would in a regular baby. You can actually see it breathe which is a big thing. The problems it presents are really real."

Olson says the SIM baby is larger than most they deal with, but it presents real problems that help in life or death situations.

"Sometimes we get so focused on one little thing we don't see other stuff and that’s the kind of training the mannequins really help out a lot with,” he said. "This mannequin looks very crude, but actually you can pretty much perform all the high risk deliveries with this instrument."

It is real life training that does not involve real life patients - and it can be done over and over.

"There are nuances that kids present and fetal maternal simulations and fetal maternal situations that are unique to health care,” ISU Director of Human Simulation David Pederson said. “We can create a safe environment to learn."

Practice that pays off when seconds count with real patients.

ISU has three fixed and two mobile labs in Boise and Eastern Idaho.

The lab you just saw can be packed up and taken to rural hospitals across Idaho to give professionals there a chance to practice on the mannequins.