After breaking ground in late 2023 and soft launching this past fall, TWU has officially opened the doors to its $107 million Health Science Center. Of that total, $100 million was provided by the Texas legislature in 2022. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to advance interprofessional education, expand TWU’s healthcare training capacity, and increase the quality and quantity of professionals in Texas.
“Our health science students on this campus have a home of their own in this facility,” said Noralyn Pickens, associate dean of interprofessional education and strategic initiatives. “It’s the heartbeat of our health science programs and has engaged and excited people about having a space on the Denton campus.”
Situated on seven acres and spanning three stories, the 136,000-square-foot facility is expected to boost TWU healthcare graduates by 30 percent over the next decade, adding about 240 nurses and 55 physical therapists to the workforce each year.
The move comes as the university’s nursing program approaches its 75th anniversary, having launched at Parkland Hospital before expanding to Houston in 1960 and now to Denton beginning this academic year. Pickens said it allows all aspects of its programs to be housed in one centralized location.
The space will house multiple healthcare disciplines across TWU, including nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and counseling and family therapy. Nearly 45 percent of enrolled students are in some healthcare-related track.
“It is a magnet for students who are interested in the healthcare professions because we have state-of-the-art simulation labs, which are very attractive to nursing and interprofessional healthcare students,” Pickens said. “We have a clinic where we’re treating clients. It provides an opportunity for students to work together in a connected space.”
The space also features three classrooms, 11 teaching labs, eight simulation bays totaling more than 7,000 square feet, and three interprofessional clinical spaces totaling more than 17,000 square feet.
All of it is aimed at creating a more collaborative environment and encouraging cross-pollination among programs across campus to better prepare students for healthcare careers.
“When I go to conferences and speak about this building, everyone is envious that the space was designed to be shared,” Pickens explained. “Every space is shared and interprofessional. That is what the workforce demands. That is what’s expected, so our students enter the workforce knowing what other professions are and how to work with them.
“It develops a sense of psychological safety and mutual trust that enhances patient care and reduces patient errors. There are no silos in this building.”
Pickens noted that the Health Science Center was designed for students. Through focus groups, surveys, and direct meetings, the space—designed by architecture firm SmithGroup—reflects what program participants said they would benefit from.
“The students’ voices were heard from the very beginning,” Pickens said. “We listened to what students wanted for collaborative spaces. We listened to them about what they needed in terms of technology. It was important for SmithGroup and the overarching steering committee to create a sense of belonging.”
On the technology front, Pickens points to several key features now at the disposal of healthcare-focused students, including its simulation center. That space allows our students to understand how they’re using AI and how they integrate into the healthcare environment,” Pickens said. We’re using technologies that they are able to practice with here on campus, so that is really critical to their development and preparation for the workforce.”
Specifically, students can train in simulation to experience firsthand what it’s like to work with clients and patients. The simulation center has low- and high-fidelity mannequins where students can practice drawing blood. The mannequins can speak 10 different languages and even simulate childbirth.
TWU has also moved its speech and hearing clinic, along with its counseling, marriage, and family therapy clinics, to the new facility. In addition, the Institute for Women’s Health Clinical Services operates there, and a nurse practitioner-run medical clinic will eventually be built out.
At the heart of it all is service to the North Texas community, Pickens said. “We need those healthcare providers, and we need people to be trained interprofessionally in the space so that they know best practice as well. We want this to be a place where we can serve our community and have students work within it.”
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