Allied Health programs are playing an increasingly strategic role in the success of collegiate campuses, necessitating active collaboration between health science, clinical care, and other disciplines. Seeking to create a vibrant new hub for its undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville engaged Mackey Mitchell Architects and HERA Lab Planners in 2017 to begin studying design of a new Nursing Simulation building, to be integrated with its existing spaces in Alumni Hall.
Shape
Our design process was centered around the school’s multi-discipline nursing faculty, but built to solicit input from allied clinical care disciplines like PT and OT, and from area hospitals who plan to lease the facility for professional staff training on weekends. Together we envisioned a flexible and technologically-rich collection of classrooms and simulated healthcare environments, from patient rooms and OR’s to nursing stations, all clustered around a central control room, from where the simulations are run and recorded.
Inspire
This collection of spaces is designed to bring new energy to formal instruction, to expand opportunities for degree candidates to log qualified practicum experience, and as a collaborative training magnet for local healthcare providers. The building is being designed to meet LEED Silver requirements.
Each course, level, degree, and cohort have differing needs and compete for space. Mackey Mitchell worked with us step by step to think “out of the box” in planning space and to think futuristically in identifying where we anticipate growth.
- Roberta Harrison, PhD, RN Associate Dean for Academic Programs & Community/Global Partnerships
