When Father Rick Lawson, a contributor to the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, first visited the underutilized locker space in Utah State University's recreation building in 2022 — which would later become the new Emma Eccles Jones Advanced Nursing Education Suite — he was skeptical about its transformation.
But when he attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the space along with more than 100 community members and faculty of Utah State University on Monday, he quickly changed his mind.
“Today when I walked in, I was just absolutely overwhelmed,” Lawson said. “It’s fantastic, beautiful, state-of-the-art, and will be such a great facility for the students to really learn their skills.”
The expanded space allows for double the number of students to be admitted each year. Instead of 30, the program will now admit 60 qualified nursing students annually, totaling 120 enrolled students at any given time, said Al Smith, the college's dean.
“This facility will serve as a hub for innovation and research, fostering collaboration among students, faculty, and healthcare professionals,” Smith said. “It will enable us to pioneer new methods in nursing education and practice, ensuring that our graduates are among the best prepared and most capable nurses to enter the workforce.”
The newly remodeled education suite is designed to emulate a hospital floor. It features four simulation rooms, a skills practice lab, a nurses’ station, a medication room, and three briefing rooms. Carma Miller, the head of USU’s Nursing Department, said the technology integrated into the space will provide students with the practice they need in a risk-free environment.
“Health care has become a lot more critical over the past few years. We find that patients are much sicker when they go to the hospital, and that they need a much higher level of care,” Miller said. “So, when students graduate, they need to be able to hit the ground running when they go into a hospital. They need to have enough patient experience that they can take good care of a patient, even from the beginning.”
Students will be expected to interact with the space’s medical mannequins as if they are live patients. The mannequins closely simulate human physiology and anatomy. They can even speak, moan, or scream. Students will give injections, adjust oxygen rates, place feeding tubes, and start IVs.
Nursing Student Madeline Stam, who was at the ribbon cutting practicing on the mannequin, said she is extremely excited for the updated technology and space.
“This makes it seem really lifelike, so we can practice but not actually put a human in danger,” Stam said. “But it's still not just a lifeless mannequin. We can still talk to them and feel their pulses, and it really helps make it seem real before we step out into the field.”
