The University of Nebraska Board of Regents Friday approved plans to build the Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning at UNMC.
A transformative learning resource, the Global Center will house and support the activities of UNMC’s Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning, an initiative more commonly known as iEXCEL℠. The initiative, which includes advanced simulation clinical settings and virtual immersive reality technology, will help transform how health science education and clinical care is delivered through competency-based learning and assessment.
“This facility — and the iEXCEL℠ initiative — is a unique opportunity for UNMC and Nebraska to be a world leader in using near ‘real life virtual reality scenarios’ to transform performance in career-long health care education and training,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D.
“iEXCEL℠ provides an extraordinary opportunity for UNMC to provide much needed leadership in the field of health care education,” said Pam Boyers, Ph.D., a medical educator with expertise in interprofessional simulation in health care. Dr. Boyers recently joined UNMC as associate vice chancellor for interprofessional education and experiential learning.
While based at UNMC’s Omaha campus, the center will benefit the entire state, including UNMC campuses in Lincoln, Kearney, Scottsbluff and Norfolk, as well as UNMC’s primary clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, and its regional health partners. It also will serve as a resource to Nebraska’s state colleges and the military, while bolstering continuing education and statewide training for all of Nebraska’s health care practitioners.
More than 20,000 learners are expected to use iEXCEL℠ in the first year of operation, with a projected 10 percent to 20 percent increase in each subsequent year.
As such, the care provided to patients will improve, making Nebraska a healthier state in which to live, Dr. Gold said.
Earlier this year, the Legislature approved $25 million toward design and construction of the Global Center, as well as $2 million for operations and maintenance of the new facility. Additional funding support for the Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning and iEXCEL℠ will come from other private and public sources.
UNMC leaders project construction of the Global Center to begin in January 2017, with substantial completion by summer 2018. The facility will be connected to adjacent facilities — the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education to the north and the Lauritzen Outpatient Center to the east — via skywalks.