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Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez grins after receiving a pair of scrubs Thursday, Oct. 23 at the university's west campus.

By Braley Dodson Daily Herald

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Utah Valley University President Astrid Tumienz joins Dale Maughan, an associate nursing professor, Thursday, Oct. 23 for a ribbon cutting at the university's nursing student learning and simulation center.

By Braley Dodson Daily Herald

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A nursing simulation dummy lies in a bed Thursday, Oct. 23 at the Utah Valley University nursing student learning and simulation center.

By Braley Dodson Daily Herald

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David McEntire, the dean of the Utah Valley University College of Health and Public Service, addresses a small crowd Thursday, Oct. 23 at a ribbon cutting for the nursing student learning and simulation center.

By Braley Dodson Daily Herald

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Utah Valley University’s nursing students have a few new tools up their scrubs sleeves.

The university celebrated the ribbon-cutting and open house for its new nursing student learning and simulation center Wednesday afternoon at the UVU Health Professions Building on its west campus in Orem.

The center includes a 7,500-square-foot lab with the capacity for 21 hospital beds and includes three nursing skills labs, three simulations rooms, birthing and infant mannequins, three debriefing rooms, an outpatient exam room and a control room. It also has computer-based mannequins and space for hands-on activities.

David McEntire, the dean of the UVU College of Health and Public Service, said the center will be a vital resource to students. McEntire said Utah is short 4,000 nurses every year, and the new center will help to add quality nurses to the state.

“We have to do as much as we can to increase the quantity of nurses entering the field,” he said during the brief ribbon-cutting ceremony.

There are 120 students at UVU working toward an associate of science degree in nursing or to become a registered nurse. The university’s first graduates in its licensed practical nursing program completed the program in 1950. Since then, the program has grown from 28 to about 3,500 graduates.

“There is a proud history we are all building upon,” said UVU President Astrid Tuminez during the ceremony.

She spoke to the small crowd about recently reading “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande. She called nursing a noble profession.

“When I am staggering someday, being mortal, I hope there will be caring people like you to help me and others on that journey,” Tuminez said.