Tampa General Hospital and the USF Health College of Nursing are investing $4.4 million in building a nursing simulation lab to offer advanced training for nurses, marking the college’s 50th anniversary celebration with a leap into futuristic training technologies.

The investment will come over six years to support the planning, construction and implementation of the lab, which will be located at the USF Health College of Nursing on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Tampa. It will include 12 clinical examination rooms, four simulation learning labs, a multipurpose learning lab, six high-fidelity simulation rooms, six debriefing classrooms and six control rooms. Both undergraduate and graduate nursing students will be able to practice taking vital signs and patient safety, medicine administration safety and recognizing deteriorating patients, among other skills. "Learning through simulation is a critical aspect of the undergraduate nursing curriculum,” says Dean Usha Menon.

USF and TGH have been partners in medical clinical education since the beginning of USF’s medical and nursing programs in the early 1970s when TGH became the primary teaching hospital for the university.

“The partnership between the University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital continues to provide new and innovative opportunities for our students, faculty and staff to create a healthier future for the Tampa Bay region,” USF President Rhea Law said in announcing the new project.

“Across the state and around the nation, we’re facing a crisis when it comes to our nursing workforce. There will not be enough trained nurses to fill our need to care for patients. That’s why we’re expanding access to education and training for Tampa Bay nursing students — to grow our pipeline of essential health care professionals in this region,” says John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital.