John Brown University held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for a 20,000-square-foot Health Sciences building designed to house the university's new nursing program.
The nursing program is the largest new academic program the university has launched in the past 20 to 30 years, JBU President Chip Pollard said during the ceremony.
Nursing is a natural fit for JBU's focus of educating the head, heart and hands. The university has been involved in educating the whole person and professional education from the very beginning of its history, he said.
The college has already received $8.5 million toward it's fundraising goal of $12 million for the nursing program, Pollard said. Construction on the $6 million facility is scheduled to be complete by the fall of 2016 when the first cohort of pre-nursing students are ready to begin the nursing program.
The building, located between Bell Science Hall and the Balzar Technology Center, will include three classrooms, four exam rooms with computer-operated, interactive mannequins that simulate urgent care scenarios for student education, two health assessment labs, a computer lab, offices and study lounges.
Susan Barrett, former chief executive officer of Mercy Health Systems and vice-president of JBU's Board of Directors, spoke during the ceremony about the importance of faith-based education for nurses.
"Nurses spend every hour in a protected relationship and have the opportunity to witness and observe the certainty of God and the mystery of faith," she said.
Barrett said when she came to Arkansas in 1999, the state had the lowest percentage of bachelor of science prepared nurses in the seven state area her company served. Since then health care has embarked on a rapid change with a new model of care that asks nurses to do more tasks than the ever before.
Ellen Odell, nursing program director of the college, said that nursing accreditation uses the terms of knowledge, skill and attitude which is a perfect fit with JBU's focus of educating the head, heart and hands.
Odell said she has enjoyed writing the concept-based curriculum for the new program from the ground up. JBU is already ahead of the game, she said.
The university will have the first bachelor of science program in Arkansas that will allow students to enter as freshmen and begin taking classes, Odell said. Starting earlier allows students to get an idea of what nursing is all about and the classes are designed to meet JBU's core requirements so they won't lose credits if they decide to switch majors, she said.
The nursing program has also integrated medical mission trips -- abroad or in the U.S. -- so they will count toward part of the student's summer clinic hours.
For students who aren't able to participate in the mission trips, Odell said "Wherever God plants them in their medical career -- that's their mission field."
General News on 08/19/2015