On August 30, Yale School of Nursing celebrated the completion of the Simulation Lab and classroom expansion project at a ribbon cutting ceremony. Faculty, staff, students, community partners, and the many individuals who contributed to the project were present. Dean Ann Kurth cut the ribbon, accompanied by President Peter Salovey.
“The expansion of our Simulation Lab plays a critical role in meeting one of our key strategic blueprint objectives – to expand curricular offerings by utilizing comprehensive teaching modalities. The state-of-the-art space will help prepare future Yale nurses to address where health care is going, such as outpatient, disaster, and telehealth care. This expanded Sim Lab and teaching space, along with the support of our superb faculty, will help us continue to produce some of the very best APRNs and healthcare leaders around the world”, commented Dean Kurth.
The $5 million-dollar project involved over 8,000 square feet of renovated space and was completed in less than one year in order to be ready for the fall 2018 incoming class of students. The architects for the project, Svigals + Partners, designed an innovative space for state of the art nursing education. The design includes two new classrooms, a primary care assessment lab, six standardized patient exam rooms, a one-bedroom apartment for home care simulation, as well as updates to the Center for Biobehavioral Health Research and first floor café. Shawmut Design and Construction oversaw the construction. Associate Dean for Finance & Administration Marcia Thomas guided the entire project to its successful completion.
Faculty member and director of the Simulation Lab, Ginger Sherrick, played an integral role throughout the entire project. “The new simulation area will allow the students to have immersive patient encounters in a realistic primary care setting using standardized patients (live actors). This will provide the students with opportunities to gain confidence and competence as providers during their education at Yale”.
View a photo slideshow from the opening here.
For more information about the work of the Simulation Lab, read this recent article in Yale Nursing Matters, Simulation Learning Lab: Preparing Nursing Students for the Real World.
View a disaster simulation video filmed at the School of Nursing in June, 2018 by the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications.
Photos by Harold Shapiro.