Hoping for a surge in the number of certified nurses across Arkansas, state and local leaders celebrated Monday’s grand opening of the new Nursing and Science Center at the University of Arkansas Community College.
“It’s great because it’s going to help our state provide the nurses that we desperately need,” Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the midday ceremony and ribbon cutting at the new facility, adding that experts project the country will need 300,000 more nurses by the end of the decade.
The 35,000 square foot, two-story facility includes classrooms, lounge areas for students to study and multiple science and nursing labs. Some of those labs are decked out to emulate a hospital setting, and include life-like mannequins that blink, cough and talk with students as they practice procedures.
The $16 million project was funded through a variety of sources, including about $2 million from the Arkansas Linking Industry to Growing Nurses (ALIGN) Program. The ALIGN program “is designed to upskill nursing professionals, expand nursing apprenticeship programs, and increase nurse educator recruitment and retention,” according to a 2024 news release.
Part of a $2 million grant from the state was used to pay for equipment including hospital beds and the interactive mannequins, said Darrell Moore, UACCM Dean of Nursing and Allied Health.
Prior to the construction of the new building, the institution’s health care and science programs had been housed in facilities built in the early 1960s, said Lisa Willenberg, chancellor of UACCM, during her remarks at Monday’s ceremony.
“During the past six decades, the nursing programs have experienced rapid growth and change, far outgrowing the capacity of those facilities,” Willenberg said. “This nursing and science center provides a state-of-the-art educational setting for our students.”
Willenberg said the new facility houses multiple programs, some including registered nursing, licensed practical nursing and certified nursing assistant.
Moore said that while the grand opening was held Monday, students have been in the building since mid-October. While various officials gathered outside for the ceremony Monday, students inside were taking classes and working in the realistic labs.
“The nursing demand is only going to continue to grow,” Sanders said in an interview prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This gives another way for students to engage in that career path, and it’s one that can be built on.”
Sanders’ stop at the ribbon cutting event was one of several she made in Morrilton on Monday as part of the 17th “Capital for a Day” event.