Funds Will Create a Health Care Training Facility at Des Moines University’s 3200 Grand Avenue Campus
Des Moines University is pioneering a visionary project with support from the Polk County Board of Supervisors. The board is planning a multi-million-dollar contribution to establish a new shared regional simulation center at Des Moines University’s 3200 Grand Avenue campus that will provide advanced health care training opportunities to health care education institutions across the region.
A news conference at which the plan was announced can be viewed on Polk County’s YouTube channel.
“Communities across the country have been unable to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our health care workforce,” says Polk County Supervisor Angela Connolly. “I met with Dr. Angela Franklin last spring to discuss her ideas on how we can address the workforce education needs and revitalize the DMU campus at 3200 Grand by creating a collaborative training resource facility. We know that the needs of our individual health care institutions are large, and we believe that investing in a shared resource will put Central Iowa on the map as an education innovator in the health care workforce.”
Des Moines Area Community College, Mercy College of Health Sciences and Des Moines Public Schools are working in partnership with DMU and Polk County on a vision for the center, in addition to a shared recruitment and retention strategy and on strategies to engage rural partners. The facility will also be used by area municipalities and education programs to train emergency services personnel, including emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
The shared simulation center, a forward-thinking concept crafted by DMU, will be housed in Ryan Hall on DMU’s former campus at 3200 Grand Ave. The 90,000-square-foot facility will feature state-of-the-art medical simulation technology and provide training spaces for the region’s post-secondary and higher education health sciences programs.
“DMU sought to spearhead this collaborative community initiative in response to the challenges locally and nationally recruiting skilled health care workers. We are thrilled to contribute to the community the utilization of DMU’s 3200 Grand Avenue property formerly used for our students. This is a significant step in our ongoing commitment to health care education and our community and allows us to begin to realize our vision for our 3200 Grand Avenue facilities,” says Angela L. Walker Franklin, Ph.D., DMU’s president and CEO.
With shortages across health care professions locally and nationwide, the new regional simulation center will help build a pipeline of new health care workers by providing hands-on, experiential learning opportunities. The simulation center is just one piece of the larger vision. The collaboration will focus on engaging Des Moines Public Schools students, maximizing and growing capacity in local health care programs, engaging rural partners and incentivizing graduates to stay in the state of Iowa.
It is anticipated that planning, design and creation of the center in Ryan Hall will take up to a year to create and launch.
“This collaborative community project addresses the critical need for health care training capacity in the region,” Franklin says. “DMU is proud to leverage our simulation expertise to help develop the next generation of skilled health care professionals in partnership with our fellow health care educators.”
