Greater Arlington Chamber Of Commerce

When you first walk into the University of Texas at Arlington’s new School of Social Work/College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI) Smart Hospital building, you immediately feel like you have entered the pinnacle of modern medical design and innovation honed for a remarkable educational experience. This new asset on UTA’s campus is quite a sight with its bold architecture and expansive windows reflecting the Texas sky.

The 150,000 square feet structure houses the entire school of social work along with portions of nursing school as well as a revolutionary smart hospital giving nursing students a more realistic and practical experience. As the country’s largest public nursing school producing more Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) nurses than any other college in Texas, this $76 million investment in our future healthcare workers will benefit the North Texas community for years to come.

On Tuesday, May 23, our Chamber major investors cross the threshold into this remarkable building for a three-part tour of the smart hospital: the virtual reality room, the skills learning center and the high-fidelity simulation room.

In the virtual reality room, there are dozens of headsets available for students to practice patient care in a virtual hospital. Simulating real-life situations nurses experience, Chamber members had the opportunity to try out the headsets and immerse themselves in this cutting-edge training. In fact, a PhD professor in their digital media department used his renowned expertise in virtual reality to build out the simulation hospital students. This interdepartmental work is seen throughout the entirety of the new facility and shows students how important interdisciplinary teams are in the medical field.

The second part of the tour walked us straight into the hallways of the smart hospital where you could see open classrooms with hospital grade medical equipment and even realistic disembodied arms for students to practice finding veins and IV training. We entered a realistic hospital ward with beds lining two walls, most occupied with simulation manikins. UTA is implementing the highest end of medical education with high fidelity simulation, a healthcare education methodology that involves the use of sophisticated life-like manikins in realistic patient environments. These dolls simulate human heartbeats, lung sounds and pulses giving our future nurses controlled situations where they can hone their skills and develop bedside demeanor.

The final stop on the tour brought the group into a fully immersive hospital room. All the Chamber members met Karen Smith, a pregnant high fidelity simulation manikin. This is imperative training as the UTA faculty member pointed out because they can simulate a birth eight times a day guaranteeing students experience this important medical event before stepping into clinical rotations at local hospitals. Both Karen and her baby respond to students with actions and sounds. Karen even answers questions in real-time. In these high-fidelity training environments, students get to experience low frequency events, like labor, in a controlled and safe environment.

The new Smart Hospital at UTA enables this ever-growing program to continue training top-notch healthcare professionals and social workers who are changing the face of healthcare. The economic growth that comes from schools like UTA is immeasurable, and projects like these continue to add value to our community.

Thank you to our Chamber’s major investors for supporting our mission and core strategies. To learn more about becoming a major investor, please email Bryan Weatherford at bweatherford@arlingtontx.com. Or, to learn about taking advantage of your major investor membership, please email Sherry Jackson at sjackson@arlingtontx.com.