The room is set up like a miniature hospital ward. Mannequins lie in two cleanly-made beds; empty water pitchers sit on their bedside tables. But it's actually a classroom — tables and chairs also form a lecture set-up beside the hospital scene. It’s a component of the newly-designed University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), Kuskokwim Campus’ Calritnamun Kangingnaurutet Elitaurviat, or Health Sciences Building.
Rachelle White, an assistant professor of nursing, toured Bethel community members through the elements of the space as part of its grand opening on Aug. 26. The mannequins are part of the campus’ updated teaching space, also referred to as a skills lab. The models function as interactive animatronic patients that nursing students practice care on.
White said that she’s already begun to teach the current cohort of students in the space.
“The students we were in here yesterday doing blood pressures, practicing on each other, vital signs, and they were exploring with the new simulation man,” White explained.
The project was funded in part from Premera Blue Cross with matching funds from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). The project also received a grant from the federal Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), and funding from regional health care provider the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC).
The Health Sciences Building has a storied history with the university. It was built by construction trade students of the school back when the campus was the Kuskokwim Community College. For many years it held the Yup’ik language department, even as the school became a UAF satellite campus.
In its previous iteration, the space housed the ANSEP Acceleration Academy for high school students. Eventually, the program outgrew the space and is now housed at nearby Yuut Elitnaurviat.
The Kuskokwim campus’ nursing education program has been active in Bethel since the late 2000s and has been a closer-to-home option for many in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta looking to get their nursing certification.
“We have one student who is from Eek, which really makes my heart excited. That’s always been my passion,” White said. “I've been out here 20 years. My passion [is] to raise up local nurses here to serve at our local hospital. So we are doing our mission.”
At the space’s grand opening event on Aug. 26, representatives and administrators from the state university system flew in for the ribbon cutting. Officials from the city of Bethel, YKHC, and other local organizations were also invited to attend.
YKHC CEO Dan Winkelman described nursing as what holds a patient’s health care journey together during a speech before a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“Nursing is so much more than the glue. Done well, it can actually represent the compassion of our shared humanity,” Winkleman said. “Because of today's investment by the university and Premera, many others will get to join this wonderful profession.”
In addition to the new simulation tech, the interior of the Health Sciences Building has been renovated. Project manager Jakob Theurich said that it’s an investment in the Kuskokwim Campus’ nursing program.
“Simulation-based learning improves clinical decision making and patient outcomes,” Theurich said. “This renovation is more than a building upgrade — it's an investment in our local workforce and future of health care in rural Alaska.”
It’s a space that’s already being used to train local nurses, now part of the modern era of the Bethel-based program.
