WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY For
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WSU
Spokane – Riverpoint Nursing Center
A construction plan
to boost WSU nursing education capacity to serve a high student demand throughout
the Pacific Northwest
Washington State University
is proposing upgrading, relocating and expanding the main building for its
Intercollegiate College of Nursing in Spokane, the largest nursing college
in the Northwest. The project is timed to tackle the nursing shortage crisis
throughout the state and region, create capacity to educate more university
and community college nursing faculty, consolidate university health science
programs at one Spokane campus, and improve health care for all Washingtonians.
Completion of this
project in fall of 2007, will remove physical building limitations as the
initial barrier for WSU to address the shortage of nurses with four-year
degrees (Bachelor of Science in Nursing or BSN.) The National Center
for Health Workforce Analysis in the Bureau of Health Professions, Health
Resources Services Administration (HRSA) (January 2004), projects that in
2005, there will be a shortage of 2700 nurses in the state of Washington.
By 2010, the projected shortage in the state will be 8,800 nurses and by
2015, it will have increased to 17,000. More than half of that shortage
will be for nurses who are prepared at the upper-division (BSN) and graduate
levels. New nursing care models being implemented at the acute care hospitals
call for the immediate hiring of more registered nurses. Additionally,
significant numbers of nurses in Spokane as well as in other communities
across the state and the nation will begin retiring in three to four years
resulting in a significant escalation of the shortage. By 2010, the national
shortage is estimated to be 405,800 and 683,700 by 2015. This proposed
building, accelerated by the Washington Legislature two years ago, will
be ready to begin construction in summer, 2005. It is aligned with the College’s
strategic plan to expand access for students to high quality nursing education
in order to positively impact the health of the citizens of Washington State.
The current building,
named for the late U.S. Sen. Warren G. Magnuson, has 62,700 square feet.
The new Riverpoint College of Nursing building will be larger, about 100,000
square feet of classroom, laboratory and office space, and its students
and faculty also will be able to utilize classroom and library space elsewhere
at the Riverpoint campus.
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Because WSU
is operating an intercollegiate program, the new Riverpoint building
will benefit Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, and
Whitworth College students as well as students from community colleges.
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WSU’s College
of Nursing is headquartered in Spokane but its programs are offered
statewide to more than 700 students; thus the Riverpoint building will
serve virtually all communities . About 450 students are located
in Spokane and will attend classes in the new building. An additional
250-300 nursing students are directly served by the WSU programs using
distance learning technologies that deliver classes to Pullman, Tri-Cities,
Vancouver, Yakima, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and throughout the state
via web-based instruction.
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Once 450 College
of Nursing students are relocated to the Riverpoint campus, the Magnuson
building may accommodate expanded health sciences programs for the Community
Colleges of Spokane, a plan that will also result in more space for
the nursing program at Spokane Community College. While no formal
agreements are presently in place, serious discussions are underway
between WSU and the Community Colleges of Spokane on the future of the
Magnuson Building.
Nursing’s Role
in Building a Health Sciences Campus at Riverpoint This proposal
is a continuation of WSU’s efforts to build a center for health science
research and education at the campus that is near Spokane’s medical centers.
Additional space for nursing was first proposed as an addition to the current
building in 1992. Shortly after Lane Rawlins became president, however,
the university decided to build a new building at Riverpoint instead of
an addition. The proposed construction will relocate 450 WSU Spokane nursing
students, currently housed in a building west of Spokane near Spokane Falls
Community College, to the Riverpoint campus where 739 WSU students and 2,000
Eastern Washington University students are already located. By moving the
College of Nursing to Riverpoint, nearly 1,200 WSU Spokane students will
be consolidated at a single location resulting in effective utilization
of the classroom and library capacity that already exists or is under construction
with the Spokane Academic Center. Many health science research and education
programs are already at Riverpoint, so the new building will allow nursing
students to attend a campus with other health science students in the fields
of pharmacy, nutrition, audiology, dental hygiene and health policy. The
campus is located across a river foot bridge from Gonzaga University, which
currently sends its nursing students to the WSU College of Nursing to complete
nursing degrees.
Capacity to Educate
Nursing Students and Instructors:
Without a new modern
facility, nursing program growth is at a stand-still; in fact, with current
students and faculty, the current building is significantly overcrowded
resulting in limitations to teaching approaches. The College's strategic
plan calls for increasing the number of entry level and advanced practice
nurses by providing access for students, especially in rural and underserved
areas of the state, to high quality innovative programs using a wide range
of technological and instructional approaches. The College also plans to
implement a doctoral program in June 2006 to help address the region's critical
need for faculty to teach nursing. Doctorally prepared nurses are also essential
to address the existing shortage of nurse scientists and nurse executives.
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POG Results #2 Workforce
Quality and Productivity
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POG
Results #3 Value of Post-Secondary Learnin
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POG
Results #4 Improve the Health of Washington Citizens
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POG
Results #6 Improve the Economic Vitality of Businesses and Individuals
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POG
Results #7 Improve Statewide Mobility of People, Goods, Information
and Energy
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POG
Results #9 Improve the Quality of Washington’s Natural Resources
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POG Results #11 Improve
the Ability of State Government to Achieve Results Efficiently and Effectively
| 2005-07 Project
Request: |
$31,600,000 |
MACC = $18,409,000
= $184. |
| Gross Sq Ft.
100,000 |
NASF Sq Ft.
63,000 |
|
