Architects Uniquely Qualified to Help Address the Nursing Shortage

Colleges, universities and hospital-based nursing schools are calling their architects to respond to this shortage. They are seeking to improve and modernize their facilities in order to attract and retain qualified candidates.

“At IKM, we have seen a shift from passively looking at all unfilled positions to actively focusing on improving nursing education programs and facilities,” said John Schrott, AIA, ACHA, president of IKM architects. Mr. Schrott is a member of the American College of Healthcare Architects. “Our knowledge base is in healthcare design and higher-education design, so we are uniquely qualified to address our clients’ needs in nursing education.”

IKM has recently completed the School of Health Sciences for The Reading Hospital and Medical Center. In addition, the firm is working with The Western Pennsylvania Hospital to revitalize and renovate their School of Nursing. IKM has a third health services training facility project out to bid, a new building for Lock Haven University of PA. These projects represent an emerging body of work that captures the spirit of change taking place in nurse education.

Simulation is the hot trend in healthcare technology right now, according to the director of the nursing education program at the new Reading School of Health Sciences. Medical Simulators are anatomically realistic models of patients that provide highly realistic training experience for nursing and medical students and are central in the preparation of the student to enter the clinical environment.

These sophisticated training tools coupled with a new, state-of-the-art building, designed by Pittsburgh architects, IKM Incorporated, enables the Reading Hospital and Medical Center to simulate the entire hospital experience for the multiple disciplines of health sciences. The nursing program is the largest of five main programs in the new facility. Other disciplines include radiation technology, surgical technology, EMS training and clinical pastoral care. The hospital has formed an alliance with a local university to offer Baccalaureate degrees and has provided a facility that matches the amenities seen on today’s college campuses. Once the academic recruiting efforts are completely underway, it is expected that the building will support more than 400 students per year.

The Reading Hospital and Medical Center School of Health Sciences’ new home is a three-story, 62,000 square foot building on a site adjacent to the main hospital campus. The building includes a 300-seat auditorium, classrooms, skills and science laboratories, a tiered seminar classroom, computer facilities, faculty and administrative offices. A hospitality scale has been applied to the public spaces on the ground and first floors, appropriate for the entrance of this important building serving the community’s educational needs.

The IKM team drew upon its deep knowledge-base of healthcare planning and design to create a teaching environment that is a true simulation of the clinical setting the students will be working in. The technology allows hands-on, clinical simulations that can be transmitted to nearby classrooms for real-time critiques by faculty and students.

The Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing is responding to a resurgence in popularity for its program by renovating its 83-year-old building to create a modern educational environment for students. Funded by a successful capital campaign, the project designed by IKM Architects, includes renovations for the six-story facility that will preserve its historic character while transforming the interior to meet the needs of today’s students. Renovations will also make the building more efficient by reducing operating costs associated with energy consumption make residential and administrative spaces more comfortable and classrooms spaces more technologically appropriate for nurse education.

“With these important renovations in place, we will be able to attract, retain and serve future nursing students,” said Nancy E. Cobb, Director of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing. West Penn Hospital brought sophisticated simulation training to their program last year with a grant from a local foundation.

Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania selected IKM architects to design a new educational building at the Clearfield Campus to address increased demand for Health Services programs. Construction is set to begin in Spring 2008 for the new three-story building. It will contain tiered classrooms, traditional classrooms and faculty offices, a diagnostic multi-purpose area and science-laboratory classrooms. These facilities are directed at the needs of graduate students preparing to become physician extenders in the University’s physician assistant program.

This is the second of two buildings on the Clearfield Campus to be designed by IKM. The first IKM building established the new campus site for the School of Nursing program. The second will begin to fill in the border of the campus quad that is part of the University’s master plan.

This Health Services building addresses a broader health science approach providing space for the physician’s assistant program, as well as pre-physical therapy, surgical technology, and community health education. The diagnostic multipurpose classroom will contain the advanced simulation technology so important in health education today.

A proactive approach championed jointly by healthcare organizations and institutions of higher education are the first steps to begin addressing the building crisis of diminished numbers of healthcare professionals. These initiatives combined with advanced clinical technologies and modern facilities will begin to attract the talented and committed individuals that have historically been the backbone of healthcare in our communities.