VIDEO: Take a tour of TRU’s new Nursing and Population Health Building

KAMLOOPS – It’s been years in the making, but TRU’s Nursing and Population Health Building is now operational.

The $37 million, 49,000 square foot building has more classroom and lab space, and students are able to interact with the mannequins to get a more realistic learning experience.

“They’re painted with special paint, so that if, for instance, we’re finding that students aren’t paying attention to changes in the colour of moles that could be pre-cancerous, we can actually put those on the mannequins, so that now they have to look for those,” said coordinator of the Lab and Simulation Centre Wendy McKenzie.

The new Nursing Population and Health Building has 48 beds – up from 17. It also has specialized rooms, like the maternity and pediatric room.

“Looking at our program, there was a real gap in pediatrics,” noted McKenzie. “We couldn’t find clinical placements where you have sick kids because if they’re sick, they go down to a higher level of care in Vancouver, and so we didn’t have anything to show them.”

The emotions and reactions of the mannequins are manipulated in a control room by simulation technician Curtis Stebner. The mannequins’ emotions will also change depending on the actions of the students.

TRU Dean of Nursing Rani Srivastava says the new building will give the students the confidence they need before practicing in a real healthcare setting.

“Practice, practice, practice is what gives you the skills, the confidence that you need to do,” said Srivastava. “This space is really needed, especially at a place like TRU where we are more rural or remote. We don’t have access to as much of the acuity care that we want our students to be able to experience and graduate with.”

Every year, the nursing program accepts 80 students. TRU also has the health-care assistant program. Starting this year, it has introduced a Masters of Nursing program. The new building allows for more student capacity, but TRU says it would need more government helps to welcome more students.

“There’s a lot of need for nurses, but as to how many students can take in is very much dependent on funding from the government,” Srivastava noted. “So we certainly have the capacity to expand now with the lab, but much will depend upon where the ministry is looking at being able to invest in further nursing positions.”