Indiana University’s Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) is an enormous – and enormously impressive – undertaking. Before construction is complete, 400 workers will pour 45,000 cubic yards of concrete and assemble 2,500 tons of steel into a massive 735,000 square foot structure that, for the first time, will house IU Health physicians and staff and IU faculty, staff, students, and researchers from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Speech & Hearing, and Social Work in a single location!

We first told you about the RAHC in the summer 2018 Issue of The Nursing News. With the center’s steel superstructure now complete, it’s time to give an update on the extensive efforts now underway to design and equip the center’s new Inter-Professional Simulation Center (SIM) and Nurse Learning Resource Center (NLRC).

The New Inter-Professional Simulation Center

To provide oversight in planning for the new SIM, an executive team has just been named with the goal of facilitating collaboration and planning among the organizations using the new SIM. The team consists of: 

• Dr. Dan Handel, VP, Chief Medical Officer, South Central Region IU Health
• Dr. Sarah Tieman, Assistant Director of Clinical Education, IU School of Medicine, Bloomington
• Dr. Mary Lynn Davis-Ajami, Associate Dean of the IU School of Nursing, Bloomington.

IUSON and the IU School of Medicine (IUSOM) currently share a two-room SIM Center, where students practice on high-fidelity manikins in a safe environment to learn the clinical skills they’ll need in a real life clinical setting.

“When we move to the RAHC,” says IUSON BL SIM Center Coordinator Sally Gindling, “the SIM Center will have five ICUs and two Labor/Delivery rooms, six exam rooms (similar to what a patient experiences in a physician’s office), and a community assessment lab designed to simulate the home environment.”

Moving to a larger and more robust center will greatly benefit our students and faculty. “More rooms will allow greater flexibility in planning,” says Sally, “which will make it easier for faculty to schedule events exactly when they need them.”

More rooms at the SIM Center will also increase the type, frequency, and variety of simulations which, in turn, will increase the number of IPE (Inter-professional Education) events for our students. “With the SIM center being larger,” says IUSON BL Clinical Assistant Professor Dr. Roxie Barnes, “we’ll be able to allow for a greater number of IPE simulation experiences. We’ll also have the ability to have multiple rooms set up for simulations, allowing the IPE teams to move through multiple patient scenarios during a single event."

“The new RAHC will provide exciting opportunities for collaboration with the School of Nursing and other health sciences schools in the classroom, in our state-of-the-art simulation center, and at the bedside in the co-located hospital,” says IUSOM’s Dr. Sarah Tieman. “The Bloomington IUSOM and IUSON programs have a long-standing history of innovative IPE partnerships, and I look forward to expanding upon that foundation of excellence to benefit our future students.”

The New Nurse Learning Resource Center

Of special interest to IUSON Bloomington is the new NLRC, designed specifically for the School of Nursing. Each year, 100 nursing students log over 1,900 service hours in the school’s current NLRC. However, with just 10 patient beds and a maximum occupancy of only 20 students, the current NLRC is “fully-booked six days a week,” says IUSON BL Lecturer and NLRC Manager Hanna Raber.

By comparison, the new NLRC will have 11 critical care rooms, nine medical surgical rooms, a labor and delivery room, a 40-student capacity, and an open concept that will allow for greater efficiencies in learning. The NLRC will also feature an electronic medical record system, private student evaluation and post-conference rooms, and new heart monitors and medication dispensing systems that duplicate the most advanced hospital equipment.

“The ability to support 40 students at once,” says Hanna, “will greatly alter the way we schedule our classes, open up extra practice hours for our students, and positively impact the critical balance they need to maintain between academics, social activities, and work.”