College of Nursing and Health Sciences to dedicate new $34 million building Feb. 4

Advanced teaching and research facility raises bar for interdisciplinary healthcare education

By Mary Sudasassi

Thursday, Feb. 4, the College of Nursing & Health Sciences (CNHS) will kick off a day-long celebration to dedicate its new teaching and research facility at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

The new $34 million Nursing & Health Sciences (NHS) building encompasses 115,000 square feet of space housing state-of-the-art interactive skills laboratories, extensive computer suites, specialized training, evaluation and study areas, and ample lecture classrooms. The facility serves all departments of the CNHS: nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication sciences & disorders, athletic training, health sciences, and health information management.

The dedication day celebration begins with a symposium in the morning, Addressing the Nation’s Healthcare Priorities Through Research & Leadership – a two-panel discussion with leaders from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and distinguished CNHS alumni. The celebration continues in the afternoon with a special presentation by university and college administrators and dignitaries, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the building’s Simulation and Rehabilitation Centers.

Tour demonstrations illustrate simulation as core of real-world teaching

At the educational core of the new NHS building are the third floor Simulation Center (SimCenter), and the fourth floor Rehabilitation Center (RehabCenter). These centers feature special labs, technology and real-life care settings (e.g. hospital stations, exam rooms, residential venues) that can be used individually or together in a variety of combinations to accommodate and encourage interdisciplinary instruction and collaboration within the college.

The SimCenter emphasizes nursing and critical care instruction and features state-of-the-art equipment and instruments for hands-on use by students. The technology makes possible enhanced clinical and critical thinking training by incorporating the latest cutting-edge simulation, digital imaging projection and closed circuit monitoring, and Web-based technologies. Highlights include:

• Basic nursing lab mock hospital ward
• 8 simulation patient rooms simulating an OR, ER and primary care clinic rooms
• 3 control rooms for operating computerized patient care scenarios and monitoring students’ progress through CCTV
• 2 debriefing rooms for reviewing, evaluating and discussing outcomes of the day’s simulations
• The Gaumard SimFamily – mother, father, two children and newborn patient simulators used in the instruction of adult, pediatric and advanced patient care. These patient simulators are capable of physically and vocally manifesting a variety of symptoms.

The RehabCenter complements the critical patient care and treatment capabilities of the SimCenter with flexible modular labs that allows for a variety of uses and training scenarios by the physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication sciences & disorders and athletic training departments. The labs of the RehabCenter include:

• Activities of daily living lab
• Neuromusculoskeletal lab
• Audiology lab
• Rehabilitation lab
• Gait analysis lab
• Speech & language skills lab
• Pediatric lab
• Therapeutic activities lab

Guests can participate in tours featuring a series of demonstrations by faculty and students that illustrate a number of simulation resources and instruction capabilities now possible in the new building. Among the demonstrations will be surgical laparoscopy and ultrasound procedures, crash-cart response to a heart attack victim, intubating an asthma patient, assisting in a labor and delivery, performing a gait analysis, muscular re-education on a Biodex trainer, audiological exams and more.

University’s first LEED building has Miami’s first “Green Roof”

The new NHS building was officially LEED registered when construction began and is on track to achieve Silver LEED certification, making it the first LEED-certified building in the university’s history. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of sustainable green building and development practices.

Among the design “eco-highlights” of the new NHS building is Miami’s very first “Green Roof,” which is visible from the south lobby windows of the third, fourth and fifth floors. Aesthetically appealing, low-maintenance xeriscape landscape vegetation is planted on the roof of the second-floor corridor. The “Green Roof,” which will be sustained only from natural rainwater, will help insulate the corridor below and absorb the heat of the sun’s rays. Miami joins a growing list of cities including New York, Chicago and Seattle participating in the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Green Roof” initiative helping reduce urban heat island effect.

The gateway to FIU’s Academic Health Sciences Center

The NHS building stands as the gateway to the university’s highly anticipated campus health center. The building’s two distinct five-story structures (classrooms/labs in one, administrative offices in the other) are connected by upper-level walkways to create a gateway that straddles the proposed Avenue of the Sciences. This leads to the Academic Health Sciences Center emerging at the northeast corner of the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Next on the landscape will be the new Miami-Dade County Health Department building, which will house the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, and the Miami-Dade County Ambulatory Care Center.

Said Divina Grossman, dean of the college and newly appointed vice president of engagement, “The new building represents this university’s commitment to produce highly skilled, culturally competent healthcare professionals who will serve our communities. The technology and resources that come with the new building will foster cutting-edge nursing and healthcare education standards and practices, support important research discoveries, and set the benchmark for advanced academic studies and interdisciplinary instruction in nursing and health sciences.”