Belmont Opens Center for Interprofessional Health Care Education

Transformative Space Brings Health Care Disciplines Together Under One Roof

Last week, the ribbon was cut on Belmont University's brand-new Center for Interprofessional Engagement & Simulation, ushering in a new era of health care education in Nashville. The state-of-the-art 60,000-square-foot facility welcomed its first cohort of students — a group of accelerated nursing students who will pioneer the innovative space. 

While housed within the Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine, the center itself is an independent entity under the University Provost that serves as an interprofessional learning space for students across Belmont's health care programs. The center brings together students from the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, the Inman College of Nursing, and the Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine to train collectively.  

This multidisciplinary approach allows students across all departments to learn vital teamwork and communication skills through shared simulations and interactive scenarios. By experiencing interprofessional training firsthand, Belmont aims to shape graduates adept at providing seamless, team-based patient care upon entering the workforce. 

"We are so excited to get our students into this space,” said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Nursing Sandy Murabito. “Providing our nursing students with realistic, hands-on training opportunities in an interprofessional environment is so valuable when it comes to developing the skills they need to deliver outstanding, collaborative care." 

The center's remarkable features span the full spectrum of health care environments. It houses 24 exam rooms replicating clinical spaces and eight high-fidelity hospital rooms with advanced monitoring for running emergency simulations. It also incorporates flexible spaces like a 12-bed health assessment lab and four high-tech skills labs with capabilities like virtual reality.  

In addition to the integration of standardized patient actors portraying realistic scenarios to hone student communication skills and empathy, the center's technological centerpiece is its stunningly lifelike manikins capable of delivering babies, tracking students with their eyes and engaging in real-time voiced responses. These manikins create an unprecedented level of authentic, immersive learning experiences for Belmont students. 

With accreditations reflecting educational excellence, the Center for Interprofessional Engagement & Simulation is poised to reshape modern health care training. Its opening marks an exciting new chapter as Belmont shapes a collaborative workforce to meet society's evolving health care needs. 

“I cannot overstate how transformative this new facility will be for the learning experiences of our students across health care disciplines," said the center’s Director of Education Beth Hallmark. "I'm thrilled that our students will be able to take advantage of these advanced facilities and resources as a vital part of their education. They are getting incredible preparation that will pay dividends when they enter their health care careers ready to provide truly exceptional patient care.”