WVU School of Medicine receives gifts for simulation center expansion and scholarships

David Shaw and Dr. Jo Ann Goldbaugh Shaw make an impact on Health Sciences training

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – David Shaw, pharmacist, and Jo Ann Goldbaugh Shaw, M.D., know what it’s like to be “starving students.” They worked their way through undergraduate and graduate school, sometimes trudging up hill, in the snow just to get to class and then to work.

David worked as a pharmacy technician while enrolled in the WVU School of Pharmacy, and Jo Ann worked as a medical technologist while completing her medical degree at WVU.

Because of their experiences, the Shaws, from Wheeling, have chosen to dedicate a substantial financial gift to the School of Medicine that will help support a $5-million expansion of the WV STEPS Center (Simulation Training and Education for Patient Safety), an inter-professional healthcare training laboratory that provides students and clinical learners with hands-on access to patient simulators capable of everything from trembling and crying, to bleeding and giving birth. Using advanced technology, the Simulation Center helps clinical learners improve their analytical, diagnostic, communications, and crisis-intervention skills.

“The WV STEPS Center couldn’t be a more perfect fit for our intentions,” Jo Ann Shaw said. “We can impact a broad group of students and clinicians and provide a team environment where pharmacy, nursing, and medical students and others get the hands-on training they need. As a practitioner, you can finish school with clinical experience that makes you feel confident and prepared to begin working immediately in the healthcare field.”

The gift will enable the WV STEPS Center to expand its footprint within the Health Sciences Center; improve computer-based systems; open a fifth simulation laboratory dedicated to “mothers and babies” that is equipped to simulate the obstetrical environment; and enhance programs, such as the Standardized Patient and the Clinical Skills programs. Expected completion date is spring 2015.

The simulation center was recently granted accreditation in the areas of Teaching/Education and Assessment by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Simulation Programs. Communication and collaboration between the Health Sciences Center schools were the top strengths listed by the review committee.

“It is timely that our Health Sciences Simulation Program has joined about 30 other programs internationally that have achieved this accreditation status at the same time that David and Jo Ann Shaw have so generously contributed their support to our mission,” David Wilks, M.D., medical director of WV STEPS and assistant dean for Technology in Medical Education in the School of Medicine, said. “I believe that they see and understand the innovative work we do. Their support for our program will allow us to continue to provide the highest quality educational experiences for the future healthcare professionals of West Virginia and our country.”

“The Shaws, with their generosity, are helping to create extraordinarily competent, highly competitive Health Sciences students graduating from WVU,” Arthur J. Ross, III, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the WVU School of Medicine, said. “They are helping to train the future healthcare practitioners that will take care of West Virginians. And, they get to see their gifts at work right away.”

An additional donation will also support the Jo Ann Goldbaugh Shaw Scholarship Fund, which they established in 2011 to help students from each of the four years of medical school with tuition and expenses.

“It was the trials and tribulations that we had while we were in school that helped us to consider creating this scholarship fund,” echoed both Shaws. “We are in a unique position to be able to provide financial assistance, and we are hoping that our fellow alumni will follow suit, even if it’s to support an established fund, such as the Dean’s Scholarship Fund. Others don’t have to commit at the level we do but can commit at a much smaller level and collectively have a huge impact.”

The Shaw Scholarship Fund recently reached the $1-million mark and will successfully fund four separate scholarships. Two WVU medical students are currently receiving scholarship assistance from the Shaw Scholarship Fund, and a third student will be named in the near future.

“The Shaw Scholarship Fund is an essential tool in helping West Virginia students stay in West Virginia for their education,” Dr. Ross said. “With this type of financial gift, we can offer students a competitive scholarship that would entice them to pursue their medical studies at WVU, rather than at an institution elsewhere. We are so fortunate to have very special alumni who have put their WVU education to work and value the opportunity of supporting future WVU graduates.”

The contribution was made in conjunction with A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The $750 million comprehensive campaign being conducted by the WVU Foundation on behalf of the University runs through December 2015.

Photo identifications: (from left to right) Dr. Arthur J. Ross III, dean of the WVU School of Medicine; Josh Roach, third-year medical student and recipient of the Shaw Scholarship; and Dr. JoAnn and David Shaw