Education
BY LIZZY SPANGLER
SHSU expanding nursing school capacity with renovations students ... we needed to increase the number of classrooms and labs that we had,” Berry said. Berry said the simulation labs act similarly to flight simulators. The labs also help reduce the number of hours a student needs to be in a clinical setting if they can increase the hours they’re in a simulated environment. 2.5 years of planning
Sam Houston State University began a renova- tion this November of The Woodlands Center to increase the capacity of its nursing school, School of Nursing Director Dr. Devon M. Berry said. While the campus’s footprint will not be expanding, its interior space will be renovated, approximately tripling the amount of space for the School of Nursing. The project will increase the number of simulation and skills labs, and the number of active learning classrooms. “It was our desire to see what we could do to help reduce the need for nurses,” Berry said. “So that meant for us, asking, ‘What can we do to expand our enrollment?’” At a glance Berry said generally, the three barriers that keep nursing schools from expanding are a lack of space, clinical placements and nursing faculty. The renovation will address the lack of space barrier. “For us to be able to increase the number of
$13M-$14M cost
“This allows us to give the students even more practice in a safe and controlled environment,” Berry said. Looking ahead Berry said since the School of Nursing began graduating students around 13 years ago, about 1,400 nurses have been placed in the community. Once the renovation is complete around Sep- tember 2026, SHSU has a three-year growth plan to increase enrollment by nearly 70%—from enrolling 85 students twice a year to 144 students twice a year. Berry said that’d move the school from being around 400-500 students to 650-750 students.
September 2026 completion date
70% increased enrollment capacity to 144 students twice a year
SOURCE: SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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