Arapahoe Community College (ACC) celebrated the completion of Phase 1 of its Health Innovation Center in October 2024 with healthcare and education partners, state and county officials, donors, civic leaders, and ACC students and employees. The Center’s simulated education spaces are used across ACC’s healthcare programs to improve functional collaboration between disciplines while preparing students to better serve patients. This expansion of healthcare programming, which began as a vision in 2017 before finally commencing in May 2023 with the renovation of ACC’s existing two-level annex building, is central to ACC’s mission to provide innovative and responsive educational and economic opportunities.

“Our Health Innovation Center is expanding critical programming to address growing healthcare industry workforce needs,” said ACC President Stephanie J. Fujii, Ph.D. She continued:

ACC’s simulated and active learning experiences are paving the way to increase the pool of well-trained professionals for high-growth, high-demand healthcare jobs in South Metro Denver and beyond. At ACC, we are proud to provide the best educational and work-based training opportunities for the healthcare professionals who serve our communities.

Phase 1 increased healthcare classroom sizes, allowing for larger cohorts to be admitted and increasing the pipeline of well-trained professionals into the healthcare workforce. ACC is currently pursuing approvals and funding for Phase 2, which will provide additional classroom spaces and simulation equipment as well as the continued development of interdisciplinary healthcare and public service instructional models.

Phase 2 rendering of the ACC Health Innovation Center

Phase 2, which will be comprised of over 31,000 square feet of new instructional space and more than 9,000 square feet of renovations to existing classrooms and health labs, will continue to emphasize the importance of healthcare simulation spaces. The goal of Phase 2 is to provide innovative simulation experiences for ACC’s Nursing, Emergency Medical Services/Paramedic, Mortuary Science, and Law Enforcement Academy students to collaborate and engage in experiential learning settings that may otherwise be unattainable through clinicals or traditional instructional models. Clinical site availability is a challenge for all healthcare programs; this can prove to be a bottleneck for getting more healthcare workers into the workforce. ACC students, however, are well prepared to enter clinicals because of the simulation experiences offered at the Health Innovation Center.

Students gain valuable interdisciplinary experience at ACC's Health Innovation Center

Simulation, which provides a consistent, guaranteed set of experiences, can replace required clinical hours. In fact, Phase 2 of the Health Innovation Center will help replace the clinical experience required by Colorado State Board of Nursing accreditations by 50 percent and ultimately grow ACC’s registered nursing program capacity by 25 percent. Furthermore, Phase 2 will be instrumental in offering a greater amount of irreplaceable interdisciplinary simulation experiences for healthcare and public service students. Imagine Law Enforcement Academy cadets working with EMS students, and Nursing students working with the college’s child development center to perform vision and hearing tests. These integrated instructional models will improve collaboration and dialogue between healthcare disciplines while preparing students to better serve patients.

Thanks to the continued support of healthcare, education, government, and workforce partners, the Health Innovation Center is preparing ACC students for impactful careers in healthcare. For more information about Phase 2 of the Health Innovation Center, or to learn more about partnering with ACC, contact Courtney Loehfelm, Associate Vice President, Institutional Advancement, and Executive Director, ACC Foundation.

Lead image: ACC celebrated the completion of Phase 1 of its Health Innovation Center in October 2024.

Jeff Duggan is Manager, Communications and Media Relations, at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado.

Opinions expressed in Member Spotlight are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the League for Innovation in the Community College.