The
new building in the Texas Medical Center cost $31 million.
(Houston)—A new 12-story building, two new master’s degree programs and a $2.5 million grant for technology are propelling Prairie View A&M University’s nursing program into a new era of achievement.
“This is an exciting time to be involved with nursing at Prairie View A&M,” said Betty Adams, dean of the college. “We’re doing our part to address the nation’s critical nursing shortage while offering state-of-the art facilities and curricula.”
Prairie View A&M has trained nurses since it began a two-year nursing program on the main campus in Prairie View in 1918. The program grew to a nationally accredited baccalaureate program with the establishment of an upper division in Houston in 1968.
The $31 million, 118,000-square-foot College of Nursing building is in the heart of the world-renowned Texas Medical Center in Houston, which consists of 42 institutions, including 13 hospitals, two medical schools, four nursing schools and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy and virtually all other health-related careers.
More than 5.2 million patients visit the Texas Medical Center each year, and more heart surgeries are performed there than anywhere else in the world.
The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology and the Texas Institute of Genomic Medicine, in which Texas A&M University and the Health Science Center are partners, are among the 11 educational institutions located in the complex.
The College of Nursing moved to the Texas Medical Center in 1982. In 2003, the building the college occupied was demolished to make way for the new high-tech building.
The new facility will allow Prairie View A&M’s College of Nursing to double its student enrollment to 500 at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels.
The increased capacity will help alleviate a nationwide nursing shortage that is expected to grow to half a million over the next decade as the country’s Baby Boomer population ages and demand for health care grows.
PVAMU
nursing students soon are expected to have two new masters’ degrees
to choose from.
At its December 2005 meeting, the A&M System Board of Regents approved two new master of science degrees in nursing education and nursing administration for Prairie View A&M.
Pending approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the two degrees will help meet growing demand for nursing faculty members and administrators. Prairie View A&M currently offers one undergraduate and one master’s degree in nursing.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2012. For the first time, the U.S. Department of Labor has listed registered nursing as the nation’s top occupation in terms of job growth over the next six years. There is a corresponding shortage in nursing administrators.
If approved, the courses will be offered via distance learning from the new site in Houston to the University Center in the Woodlands, the hospital in Huntsville, and College Station. Each program will begin with nine students admitted in fall 2006.
Students
work with a human patient simulator.
The Houston Endowment last month awarded the College of Nursing $2.5 million to create a “virtual interface” for teaching and learning.
Part of the grant will be used to buy a human patient simulator, a highly sophisticated life-size mannequin that blinks, speaks and breathes, has a heartbeat and a pulse, and is so lifelike that one manufacturer claims that students have been known to cry when the simulator “dies.”
“We are pleased with the confidence Houston Endowment has shown in this cutting-edge technology,” said Prairie View A&M President George C. Wright. “This grant will allow the College of Nursing to continue making significant educational contributions to the state and nation.”
The college has used simulators since 2003, and researchers there have found that students trained on the simulators learn skills faster and score higher grades on exams.
“This marks a great achievement for the Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing,” said Dean Adams. “We are excited by the additional educational possibilities the virtual interface will create for our faculty and students.”