As Iowa faces a worsening shortage of nurses, a large new training center for nurses and nursing students is opening at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Lou Ann Montgomery is co-director of the Nursing Clinical Education Center, which was dedicated last week on the Iowa City medical center’s fourth floor.
Montgomery says “The education center is 20-thousand square feet of space at U-I-H-C and will combine the U-of-I College of Nursing Learning Resource Center with a center we have here in the nursing department for education of staff and students.” She says the new facility won’t be forcing any drastic changes in curriculum, but it will offer several advantages. She says the big difference is the 11-bed simulation wing that will allow more interactive training of students and staff in a high-technology environment to bring students and staff up to speed on the latest techniques.
Montgomery says many Iowa hospitals are short on nurses and this new facility should become a spectacular new educational venue for nursing students and for the continuing education of nurses who are already in the field. She says the facility will be a place to practice policies, procedures, techniques and skills in a safe environment before rolling it out to the patient care environment. Montgomery says between 75 and 100 students graduate from the U-of-I nursing program every semester.