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 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 (now complete!) features 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.