Nursing Facilities
A multi-phase renovation of UNI’s Innovative Teaching and Technology Center (ITTC) at the center of campus has created a new home for the Department of Nursing & Public Health, allowing competency-based education within an environment that models clinical settings. Learning spaces integrate the traditional classroom experience with labs fully-equipped to facilitate active learning, simulations and hands-on experiences with patients.
Our hallmark is we want our graduates to be practice ready. What that means is when they walk out the door, they're still newly-prepared nurses, but they can critically think, take care of multiple patients and have a higher level of function once they graduate than we typically see.
Focused on Integrated Care
Phase I of the nursing renovation is complete, featuring two ground-level classrooms and a full departmental suite on the third floor of the ITTC. In addition to faculty and department offices, the third floor includes a health assessment skills lab, a foundation skills lab and state-of-the-art simulation suites. In these suites, students work with lifelike models—known as manikins—to practice administering IVs, checking vital signs, performing CPR and more.
Phase II has recently been completed and includes a medical-surgical lab with two simulation suites. These spaces are designed to help students train for high-intensity nursing scenarios, such as treating accident victims or caring for post-surgical patients.
Phase III is currently in development and will feature a labor and delivery suite with a maternity manikin (a highly realistic tool used in obstetric training to simulate childbirth), a pediatric room with simulators for premature infants, young children and school-age patients, as well as additional trauma rooms designed to replicate emergency and intensive care environments.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT & HEALTH PROMOTION
Designed to provide a dedicated space for lecture, skills training, and simulation as students master physical assessment competencies. Students have access to state-of-the-art equipment, including:
- Smart classroom
- Task trainers
- Specialized simulators (cardiac/lung, pregnancy)
- Advanced ophthalmoscopes
- Otoscopes
- Medium-fidelity Laerdal simulators
- Medical-grade hospital beds & exam tables
- Advanced Vital Sign Trainers
FOUNDATIONAL NURSING CARE
Designed to provide a dedicated space for lecture, skills training, and simulation as students master foundational nursing competencies. Students have access to state-of-the-art equipment, including:
- Smart classroom
- Task trainers
- IV pumps
- Specialized simulators (cardiac/lung)
- Advanced ophthalmoscopes
- Otoscopes
- Medium-fidelity Laerdal simulators
- Medical-grade hospital beds
- Advanced Vital Sign Trainers
- Medication Cart
- Electronic Medical Record
SIMULATION SUITES
Controlled environments that replicate real-world healthcare scenarios for students to practice clinical skills and improve decision-making. They provide a safe and realistic way for students to learn without putting patients at risk. Students work in small groups using Laerdal high-fidelity simulators, patient monitoring equipment, medication administration, IV pumps and electronic medical records. The suite is set up as a hospital room, which can accommodate various simulated scenarios and helps to prepare students for a real clinical setting. SimCapture training tools turn skills practice into insights by sending recorded information into the cloud for later viewing by students and faculty.