College of Nursing moving to Riverpoint

SPOKANE – Two years after a groundbreaking attended by hundreds of community leaders, students, faculty, staff, and alumni, the WSU College of Nursing will move into the new Nursing Building on the Riverpoint Campus.

The Clinical Simulation and Performance Lab will move over the weekend, followed by about 200 faculty and staff who will move during the week of Nov. 17-21.

The college’s Spokane students, who number approximately 600, will continue to attend classes at the Magnuson Building until their last final exams on Dec. 17.  Beginning spring semester 2009, all students and classes will be at the Riverpoint Campus, and the building will be dedicated sometime in the spring.

The Nursing Building first received a legislative appropriation during the 2003-05 biennium, and was constructed at a total cost of $34.6 million for pre-design, design, construction, and equipment.

The building’s approximately 89,000 gross square feet include state-of-the-art distance learning classrooms to support the college’s statewide mission, a nursing practice laboratory, technology for patient simulation, computer and multimedia laboratories and classrooms, research team space for data analysis, and offices for college administration, support staff, and faculty.

Federal funding of $1.3 million received through the efforts of U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell help equip the building with the latest technologies for research, instruction and communication, including the human patient simulation lab.

Patricia Butterfield, dean of the college, said, “We are so pleased to be moving into this remarkable new space. We will have more room to address the learning needs of our undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students, and to advance our clinical research.

“Our proximity to the health sciences district is another key advantage.  The Riverpoint campus will also provide our students with a home where they can interact with pharmacy, dental and medical students on a regular basis.  This type of learning environment is key to the development of interprofessional collaboration and a shared focus on addressing the critical issues faced by the citizens of Washington,” she said.

About the WSU College of Nursing
The WSU College of Nursing each year graduates more entry-level nurses than any other institution in the state of Washington. The College:

• Educates more than 1,000 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students.
• Provides upper-division undergraduate nursing education in Spokane in partnership with Eastern Washington University and Whitworth University as part of the nation’s first, oldest, and most comprehensive nursing education consortium.
• Offers a Master of Nursing degree (MN) with programs leading to specialization as a 1) family nurse practitioner, 2) psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner, and/or 3) community–based population-focused nurse.
• Welcomed its inaugural class of PhD students during the summer of 2007, providing quality doctoral education using a combination of face-to-face and distance education methods.
• Is a national leader in distributive nursing education models, serving students across five locations across the state in Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Walla Walla and Yakima.
• Is engaged in research studies leading to improvements in nursing care, the health care system, and the health of the public.
• Awards more than $160,000 in scholarships to nursing students each year.

Web sites:
WSU College of Nursing: www.nursing.wsu.edu WSU Spokane: www.spokane.wsu.edu WSU Health Sciences: www.healthsciences.wsu.edu

 

Next Story

Recent News

Colombian women’s rights pioneer got her start in Pullman

Paulina Gómez Vega’s experience at Washington State College in the early 1920s set her on a path that made her an education leader and an influential voice for women’s rights back home.

Provost finalists visiting the week of April 1

Finalists in the process of interviewing for the position of provost and executive vice president will present to the public during their visits to WSU next week.

McCoy named interim WSU athletic director

A widely recognized leader in intercollegiate athletics, McCoy will serve while a national search is conducted for the next athletic director.

WSU to review administrative structure

President Kirk Schulz used his annual State of the University Address to highlight both achievements and challenges while also announcing a planned review of WSU’s administrative structure and academic programs.