Emory
Nursing
Learning
Center

Educate // Experience // Innovate // Lead

Overview

Reimagine the Future of Nursing Education

Since 1905, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSN) has evolved from a small training program in a 50-bed hospital to an internationally renowned school that now enrolls more than 1,000 baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral students each year.

The School of Nursing is expanding its footprint with the Emory Nursing Learning Center, a 70,000-square-feet renovation in Decatur, Ga. The $20.6 million expansion boasts a state-of-the-art simulation and skills lab, which will provide experiential and immersive learning for students, and the Emory Nursing Experience, a program for continuing professional education in partnership with Emory Healthcare nursing.

Alumni and donors have been instrumental in helping accomplish the school’s mission—educating visionary nursing leaders and scholars; generating and applying knowledge; and transforming nursing, health, and systems of health care within local and global communities.

Support for this project will help ensure that Emory’s School of Nursing remains a leader in nursing education.

Experience

The Emory Nursing Learning Center transforms today’s nursing student experience. The student commons lobby area is a big, bright, and open gathering space, and features a prominent community staircase and digital wall that stretches up to the second floor.

Innovate

At the top of the stairs is the Innovation Hub, a space to nurture new ideas and serve as a springboard for innovation. This space helps the School of Nursing meet rising health care challenges of a growing and complex population. This floor also includes flexible classrooms, which incorporate the latest in interactive technology.

A home health lab allows students to experience realistic home care-based simulations that emphasize the patient care and therapeutic communication skills needed to support patients and their caretakers.

Educate

Simulation-based learning allows students to practice and master both basic and advanced clinical skills, techniques, and procedures. Through simulation, students learn to think critically in complex situations, communicate effectively with patients and health care teams, and manage rapidly changing situations in real-time.

Lead

The building’s fourth floor houses the Emory Nursing Experience (ENE), a professional development partnership between Emory Healthcare nursing education and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing to provide quality, continuing nursing education (activities that meet learner needs in the dynamic health care environment. The ENE space includes classrooms, conference rooms, and a recording studio.

Building Features

Classrooms
Conference rooms
Emory Nursing Experience classrooms, conference rooms and offices
Faculty and staff lounge
Innovation Hub
Media recording studio
New mothers’ room
Offices
Reception and kitchen areas
Student commons area
Student lounge
Student wellness and mediation room
Wellness room

Simulation Spaces

Briefing rooms
Exam rooms
High-fidelity rooms
HomeLab
Labor and delivery suite
Operating/trauma room
Skills labs
Standardized patient lounge (for actors participating in simulations)
Telehealth room
Traditional hospital rooms

Simulation Program at the ENLC

The Simulation Program at the Emory Nursing Learning Center employs the latest technology in high-fidelity medical manikins, making this a dynamic and collaborative space for nursing students to train.

The skills labs and training rooms include crash carts, monitors, and scrub sinks, and have 26 bed spaces that allow students to practice procedural skills and conduct complex patient scenarios using manikins or standardized patients (actors trained to play the role of a patient). Twelve exam rooms simulate the outpatient setting and are designed to teach and evaluate students’ history taking, physical examination, and communication skills.

The center also houses five hospital-type rooms with a whiteboard near each patient that provides opportunities for students to share pertinent information and plans of care. A four-bed bay area replicates a post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) for post-operative recovery, an infusion center for chemotherapy, a neonatal intensive care area, or a trauma bay.

Special Features

HomeLab
Designed to mimic a real home space where nursing students can practice scenarios including caring for patients in hospice care, post-surgical care, or geriatric home care
‍
High-Fidelity Rooms
Including obstetric and pediatric beds and life-like manikins
‍
Operating/Trauma Room
Focused on high acuity and low volume events where certified registered nurse anesthesia (CRNA) students have access to anesthesia gas machines, anesthesia and emergency carts, operating room supplies, gas supplies, vacuums, and a scrub sink.

How Simulation Works

Nursing simulation allows students to practice and develop clinical expertise without any risk of patient harm. Some examples of simulation scenarios include a car accident patient coming into the emergency room, severe asthma in a pediatric patient, or a complicated labor and delivery.

Students go through a process of pre-briefing and debriefing information provided about a patient situation. In the pre-brief, students discuss what they will see and consider actions based on potential situations.

During the simulation scenario, the students are provided with a specific case study that involves either a high-fidelity patient manikin or actors playing the role of patients. Nursing students respond to the scenario as if they were caring for a real patient. Faculty instructors watch and listen through one-way mirrors.

The action is recorded with Point Tilt Zoom (ptz) cameras, which can rapidly deploy focus in any direction and allow faculty and instructors to input assessments, playback encounters, and time stamp areas for further discussion and feedback.

In debriefing, students review and reflect on their actions during the scenario, discussing what went well and what needs to improve. Briefing – both the preparation of going into simulation and the debriefing after simulation – allows the student to learn from the experience, change behavior, and refine skills. This peer-to-peer learning allows students to also practice communication, teamwork, and sharing feedback.

Simulation scenarios can be developed for rare clinical conditions, bedside emergencies, and many other aspects of healthcare in a realistic environment.

Learn More

Innovation Hub

Nurturing Ideas

At the top of the stairs is the innovation hub, a space to nurture new ideas and serve as a springboard for innovation, helping us meet rising health care challenges of a growing and complex population. This floor also includes flexible classrooms, which will incorporate the latest in interactive technology.

A home lab will allow students to experience realistic home care-based simulations that emphasize the patient care and therapeutic communication skills needed to support patients and their caretakers.

Emory Nursing Experience

ENE

The Emory Nursing Experience (ENE) is a professional development partnership between Emory Healthcare Nursing Education and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing to provide quality, continuing nursing education (CNE) activities that meet learner needs in the dynamic health care environment. The ENE continues to grow and will occupy the fourth floor of the building. The ENE space includes classrooms, conference rooms and a studio.

Learn More

Press

Event Information

Timeline

1:00 p.m.

Guests Arrive

1:30 p.m.

Program Begins
(Remarks and Ribbon Cutting)

2:00 p.m.

Self-Guided Tours Begin

3:00 p.m.

Event Concludes

RIBBON-CUTTING EVENT INFORMATION

The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing celebrated the new Emory Nursing Learning Center (ENLC) with a ribbon cutting Sept. 16, 2022. Emory University and School of Nursing administrators, students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, and community officials were in attendance.

For more information about the event, contact:

Lauren Powers
Director of Communications and Marketing
Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
lauren.powers@emory.edu | 770-639-9613

press Assets

These links will allow you to download building maps, photography, and unedited b-roll/student interviews at your convenience. Please contact lauren.powers@emory.edu for any questions.

A document detailing highlights of the ENLC

A brochure for the Emory Nursing Learning Center.

This links to various videos of the ENLC.

This link contains photos of the ENLC building.

Gallery

This is a collection of photos highlighting spaces in the Emory Nursing Learning Center for use in press coverage. Additional photos can be downloaded here.

B-Roll Videos

This is a collection of unedited videos for use in press coverage. Unedited footage can be downloaded here. Please contact lauren.powers@emory.edu with any questions.

To download the event ribbon cutting footage, click here.

What People are Saying

“We are excited to provide this immersive learning experience for our students. This realistic environment featuring state-of-the-art classrooms and simulation lab space will uniquely prepare our students to care for patients in a wide variety of clinical and home health settings. When you step into the building, you know that you have arrived at a place dedicated to preparing the best and the brightest – Emory nurses.

As an added bonus, our students will love being in downtown Decatur, near the MARTA station, restaurants, and community events.”

Linda McCauley
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Dean

“At Emory Nursing, we share a commitment of life-long learning for all levels of nursing, certification, and continuing education. Quality professional development is the heart of the new Emory Nursing Learning Center. The building’s simulation technology provides realistic laboratories for nurses to practice as if they are in actual clinical situations. This prepares new and experienced registered nurses and advanced practice nurses to thrive in a multitude of complex clinical practice settings. This preparation is a large part of creating a smooth transition from classroom to the practice setting, and from student to expert clinician.”

Sharon Pappas
Emory Healthcare Chief Nurse Executive

“The opening of the Emory Nursing Learning Center signifies a momentous occasion for the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, and Emory Healthcare. The ENLC provides our nursing students with state-of-the-art technologies for experiential learning and positions them to be visionary leaders in the nursing profession.

This building represents the best of strategic partnerships at Emory. In addition to world-class nursing education for our current students, the ENLC also allows for practicing nurses from across the globe to have access to quality, continuing nursing education activities. This is the direct result of the School of Nursing and Emory Healthcare nursing’s strong academic practice partnership.”

Greg Fenves
Emory University President

“The city of Decatur offers a warm welcome to the students, faculty, staff, and practicing nurses who will work and learn at the Emory Nursing Learning Center. Having Emory Nursing occupy this historic building is a source of pride for the city, and it reflects well the long history of partnership between Decatur and Emory. It is a spectacular, welcoming space that will make a difference in our community and in the healthcare arena.”

Patti Garrett
Decatur Mayor

“We are pleased Emory Nursing has opened this new space in DeKalb County. Current and future nurses will receive a crucial part of their education in this center, and this preparation will benefit our citizens as they do clinical placements and pursue nursing careers in DeKalb County healthcare settings. We congratulate Emory Nursing on their continued work in our community.”

Michael Thurmond

DeKalb County CEO

“The DeKalb Chamber of Commerce exists to help DeKalb businesses succeed, and one of the keys to that success is quality healthcare. With its focus on nursing innovation, the Emory Nursing Learning Center will contribute greatly to fostering quality healthcare, and DeKalb businesses will be better for it. Our businesses look forward to serving the hundreds of students and others who will continue their education there.”

Frankie Atwater
DeKalb Chamber of Commerce President and CEO

Student Reactions

“The moment that I walked in here, it felt like we had something created for us that made us feel worthy of the profession. The building of the ENLC shows us that we are worthy of top-notch, innovative technology. This is a visual representation of what nursing can be.”

Fabiane Sención
MN Pathway Student

“It’s a game changer for us as nursing students to be in this building. This building shows growth and that my investment has been used wisely. It shows that we are being valued."

Peter Okonweze

InEmory Student

“The Emory Nursing Learning Center is super significant for all students, whether you are starting or about to graduate. For me, it’s super special because it’s a tangible representation that Emory wants to make the best of the best. It’s amazing to see that Emory is investing in future nursing students and nursing leaders.”

Caroline McMinn
MSN Student

Emory
Nursing
Learning
Center