The University of Mobile campus is expanding through an agreement to purchase the College Park Baptist Church facility, as that congregation builds at another site.
The purchase will add 14 acres to the university’s 880-acre campus and expand facilities by more than 32,000 square feet. The property is located adjacent to UMobile on the east side of College Parkway, across from a brick wall that marks one corner of the school’s current property.
“We are proud of our heritage as an Alabama Baptist entity,” said Bill Hart ‘79, associate vice president for development. “We are delighted that this property will remain in the Alabama Baptist family.”
The university has already renovated a portion of the building’s educational space to provide a state-of-the-art skills and simulation lab for the School of Nursing. Educational space in the College Park building will be renovated to provide offices and classrooms for the School of Nursing. Other areas of the facility, including the auditorium, will be used as a conference center for university programs.
Dr. Jan Wood, dean of the School of Nursing, said the nursing lab includes two high-fidelity simulation rooms, with an observation room situated between them.
“The observation room enables faculty to view students functioning in a simulated reallife scenario,” she said.
What at first glance appear to be manikins in hospital beds are actually high fidelity patient simulators. SimMan adult patient simulator, Noelle birthing manikin, and Pedi Blue pediatric manikin are used in computer-generated patient scenarios in which the manikin responds to the nursing student’s intervention.
The high-tech training in the nursing lab allows students to apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom and be prepared for situations they will encounter with patients during their clinicals in area hospitals.
Wood said everyone in the School of Nursing is excited about the expansion.
“Faculty members are overjoyed and students are thrilled,” she said. To support the expansion of the School of Nursing and contribute to the purchase and renovation, please donate online at giving.umobile.edu and designate your gift “College Park Building.”
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