Investment will fund nursing lab where students can practice skills in a realistic environment.
UCHealth has pledged $250,000 to help Front Range Community College build its new Health Care Careers Center in Fort Collins. This is one of the largest donations yet for FRCC’s new facility, which is set to open in the summer of 2020.
The center will fill a critical need for the community by providing highly qualified nurses and health care professionals for the growing population in northern Colorado. The two-story, 62,500 square-foot building will provide a centralized, technology-rich learning environment within a state-of-the-art facility for all of the college’s health-related and nursing programs.
The building will be the main training center for more than 900 students studying health-related fields at the college.
UCHealth’s contribution is an investment in future nursing resources to care for the entire community, according to Grace Taylor, vice president of operations at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital and Medical Center of the Rockies.
This donation will help fund creation of a nursing skills lab with 12 beds for simulated “patients.” The lab will be set up to model real-world health care rooms. For the highest degree of realism, the lab is equipped with simulated oxygen, suction and IV equipment. Working in this kind of simulated environment helps students get comfortable working on training equipment prior to being responsible for the safety of live patients in a clinical facility. The new “UCHealth Nursing Lab” will also include classroom space for 24 students.
“Our nursing workforce is one of the most important components of UCHealth,” Taylor said. “We are pleased to support this exciting educational project to secure the development of future nurses in our local community of northern Colorado.”
“We could not build this high-tech facility without community partners like UCHealth,” said Jean Runyon, vice president of FRCC’s Larimer Campus. “Their investment will help us meet growing local health care needs by training the frontline workers who give people high-quality care when they need it most.”
FRCC’s Health Care Careers Center
All of FRCC’s current health care and nursing programs will be housed in the HCCC. The building will also include space for new programming to meet the changing healthcare needs of the community.
The HCCC will house a variety of state-of-the-art learning spaces including classrooms, labs, small group learning spaces and collaborative space to support the programs and provide students with the required high end hands-on training by dramatically improving inadequate, undersized clinical labs.
FRCC’s Health Care Programs
Front Range Community College offers 15 degrees and certificate programs focused on educating and training students for a variety of disciplines in the health and wellness field.
FRCC currently offers the only nursing program in Larimer County. Our graduates boast among the highest pass rates on the national licensure exam of any nursing program in the state.
FRCC will begin to offer a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree in fall 2019. The BSN degree will be available to current students, graduates, and incumbent workers who live in Front Range Community College’s service area, which intersects seven counties from north Denver to Wyoming.
About UCHealth
UCHealth is an innovative, nonprofit health system that delivers the highest quality medical care with an excellent patient experience. With 24,000 employees, UCHealth includes 12 acute-care full-service hospitals and hundreds of physicians across Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska. In northern Colorado, this includes Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont and Greeley Hospital. With University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus as its academic anchor and the only adult academic medical center in the region, UCHealth is dedicated to providing unmatched patient care in the Rocky Mountain West. With more than 150 clinic locations, UCHealth pushes the boundaries of medicine, providing advanced treatments and clinical trials and improving health through innovation.
About Front Range Community College
FRCC offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs from locations in Boulder County, Larimer County, Westminster, Brighton, and online. FRCC is a member of the Colorado Community College System.
About the Colorado Community College System
The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the state’s largest system of higher education, serving 138,000 students annually at 13 colleges and 39 locations across Colorado. Our open access mission ensures all Coloradans who aspire to enrich their lives have access to quality higher education opportunities.
