Hospital Completes Gift to Epley Center for Health Professions at U of A

Steve Percival, vice president of human resources for Washington Regional Medical Center, presented the final installment Sept. 1 of a gift from the hospital to help fund the construction of the Epley Center for Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Nursing students working in clinical rotations at the hospital joined in the presentation with Susan Patton, assistant director of undergraduate studies in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing.

 

"The generosity of Washington Regional is fantastic; it's both thoughtful and critical in the preparation of nurses," said Michael T. Miller, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "Their commitment to the Epley Center allows us to provide real-world nursing experience to our students, and that in turn allows our nursing graduates to be ready for real-world situations the day they graduate."

 

The Epley Center was completed in 2012. The 45,000-square-foot building on Razorback Road is home to the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing and the University of Arkansas Speech and Hearing Clinic.The nursing portion of the building includes five high-fidelity simulation labs in which mannequins simulate patient conditions and offer scenarios for nursing students to address. It also features five debriefing rooms in which students and faculty can view video footage from the simulation labs to assess the students' performance.

 

The facility has two basic skills labs each with eight mannequins that are more basic than those in the simulation labs, two more rooms each with eight examining tables similar to those found in physicians' offices, two classrooms that seat 50 people each and a 60-seat computer lab.