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.

Nancy Kertz
Chief Nursing Administrator and Head of the Department of Nursing & Public Health

State-of-the Art, 
Focused on Integrated Care

Phase I of the nursing renovation is now complete, with two ground-level classrooms and a full department suite on the third floor of the ITTC. Alongside department and faculty offices, the third floor features an adjacent health assessment skills lab, foundation skills lab and state-of-the-art simulation suites, where students will have the opportunity to work with lifelike models, called manikins, to practice administering IVs, checking vital signs, conducting CPR and more.

Construction is currently underway for Phase II, which spaces include a medical-surgical lab with two simulation suites, to help students understand more high-intensity situations in nursing, such as patients coming in from an accident or recovering from surgery.

Phase III (in development) is poised to house a small apartment to simulate in-home care as well as a labor and delivery suite with a maternity manikin or birth simulator, a highly realistic training tool used in obstetrics training to simulate childbirth.

 

Integrated Classroom for Health Assessment & Health Promotion
Integrated Classroom

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
Integrated Classroom for Foundational Nursing Care
Integrated Classroom

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
 manikin in simulation suite
nursing faculty in suite
students in suite

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.