LONG BEACH -- The male patient lies on the hospital bed, blinking and breathing heavily.

"I'm not feeling well,' he tells the nurse. "I'm having chest pains. I'm feeling dizzy, and I don't know what's going on.'

The nurse proceeds to treat the patient as she would any other even though the sick man is made of plastic and his voice is actually that of a man speaking into a microphone in the other room.

Welcome to the new virtual reality nursing lab at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. The recently completed state- of-the-art lab, which was unveiled on Thursday, gives nursing students from Cal State Long Beach the chance to train on lifelike mannequins that respond to medical treatment in eerily realistic ways.

The lab, part of a $15 million partnership between the hospital and CSULB, features three mannequins or "human simulators' of a boy, male adult and an infant.

The "human simulators' breathe, move their eyes, and, in the case of the adult male, urinate. They have a pulse rate, a heart beat and other vital signs. In addition, their pupils dilate.

They can be programmed to have a heart attack, a stroke, severely impaired airways, a head injury, a case of diabetic shock and a variety of other conditions.

The devices will expose nurses to realistic medical situations they might not encounter doing on-the-job training in a hospital, says the hospital's project coordinator, Sue Crockett.

The lab "allows (students) to learn physical assessment skills, medication administration and procedural skills in an accurate, simulated environment,' Crockett said.

On Thursday, a team of four nursing students huddled around the adult simulator preparing for a computer-programmed "Code Blue,' in which the patient stops breathing.

"Stand clear, preparing to shock' student William Engel said, after placing two shock pads on the simulator's chest.

Students like Engel can select which medications to give the mannequins by scanning a computer bar code and can even perform injections on the simulator.

Student Shiva Batchu said it was "creepy' at first working with the human simulators, but the devices gave her some good, hands-on training.

"You're getting the closest thing you can get to a real hospital experience without having patients,' she said.

The CSULB-Memorial partnership will boost the college's annual nursing enrollment of 72 students per year by more than 100 students because it offers additional opportunities to complete their training requirement. The school currently has a waiting list to get into the program. In addition, students can complete the university nursing program in two years instead of three because they can now train in the summer.

That will help ease a nursing shortage in California, Crockett said.

The just-finished lab will get its first use by students during the summer class session, and it will also be available to nursing students at Long Beach City College and Golden West College in Huntington Beach.