Nursing department adds new building to program

By Cristian Reyna//

The nursing department at Hood College is adding another building to the program.

The new addition is located on 700 Toll House Ave, across from the urgent care and Frederick Health Hospital on West 7th Street.

All the nursing classes that were held in Hodson will now be held at the new building. It will become the new home for 100 student nurses, excluding the first-year students.

“This semester specifically, it will be the adult health nursing, maternity nursing, senior practicum, nutrition, and because of the added space we have public health courses as well,” said Jennifer Cooper, the nursing department chair and program director.

 Cooper said she is excited to announce the new space that was provided to them by their partnership with Frederick Health.

“We’ve been a senior partner with them since the program started, but we rent this building from Frederick Health,” Cooper said.

The nursing students are now able to take advantage of how close the building is to Frederick Health. A lot of the courses in nursing have clinicals that are attached to the main hospital, so it’s easy for students to walk there after class or come to class after they finish their clinicals. “It is close by and allows the students to continue to get better,” Cooper said.

“We also have some students who work in the Toll House Care Clinic,” Cooper said. The Toll House Care Clinic is an urgent care facility that treats Hood students for free.

With this space, the students can continue their practice and supply more room for labs and simulations. It also allows the professors to monitor the students through a one-way mirror.

With the one-way mirror, the professors can watch the students assess the patients through simulations and supply feedback once they are over.

“We have different manikins but we have different scenarios, so what the student’s learning needs are we can set up a scenario that the student can assess,” Cooper said.

The program has one sim man and one mom that can replicate childbirth. The program also has multiple manikins that aren’t simulators.