KEARNEY — The University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska Medical Center held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Rural Health Education Building during the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 5.
The new facility represents a further partnership between the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) and University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).
The Rural Health Education Building will help to address the critical need for additional health care professionals in rural communities by allowing more students to study and train in central Nebraska.
“The Rural Health Education Building will build upon an existing partnership between UNK and UNMC that’s shown great success. The two institutions opened a $19 million Health Science Education Complex on UNK’s west campus in 2015, and that facility quickly filled to capacity,” according to UNK.
More than 300 students are pursuing health care related degrees at the existing facility. It was noted that 85 percent of graduates from these programs start their medical careers in Nebraska.
The Rural Health Care Education building will grow the total number of students to 600, support 240 local jobs and have an annual economic impact estimated to be around $34.5 million.
The new $95 million facility will feature state-of-the-art classrooms, extensive simulations and clinical skills laboratories for pre-clinical education and complex clinical scenarios and simulated primary care spaces, UNK stated.
The new building could be completed as early as 2025.
The idea is for the facility to help expand the state’s talent pipeline by growing the existing UNMC programs offered in Kearney.
“The new Rural Health Education Building will allow UNMC to expand its existing nursing programs and bring new options to the UNK campus, including occupational therapy, medical nutrition, genetic counseling and respiratory care – all high-need areas in rural Nebraska,” UNK stated in a release.
The building will stand three stories high and occupy 110,000 square feet and will be located on the west side of the UNK campus, north of the Health Science Education Complex.
“For the first time, the UNMC College of Medicine will educate physicians in rural Nebraska, and a Master of Health Administration will be added to complement UNK’s undergraduate program,” per UNK.
The need in rural Nebraska is considered severe, 14 of the state’s 93 counties have no rural physicians, and 17 have no pharmacists.
At the groundbreaking ceremony UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen compared the opening of this facility second in importance only to the founding of UNK in 1905.
Outgoing University of Nebraska President Ted Carter said “This is truly a historic project, a once in a generation chance to the trajectory for rural Nebraska. We are working toward a future where no Nebraskan has to cross county lines to get the healthcare that they need.”
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey Gold, M.D., said, “We are not just building a building, we are changing the human workforce that will not only fill this community, but every hospital and clinic in rural Nebraska.”
Gold said the Rural Health Education Building will be the largest collaborative, interdisciplinary facility in the United States.
University of Nebraska Regent Paul Kenny said thinks about how the facility will impact the future generations of the state. “What an honor to be on the board during this for this transformational change that is coming to fruition.”
UNMC Vice Chancellor for Healthcare Workforce Relations Nicole Carritt said, “This can serve as a model across the nation. With rural health care shortages plaguing rural communities…this collaboration between UNK and UNMC will be a critical part of the solution.”
“The well-orchestrated expansion will result in a workforce that is prepared to live in, support and provide healthcare in a vibrant rural Nebraska,” Carritt concluded.
President and CEO of the University of Nebraska Foundation Brian Hastings thanked the sources of private and public funding that is the foundation of the Rural Health Education Building’s success.
Chancellor Kristensen concluded by saying that he knows that no one else in the country is working on a project quite like this one.
“If you like this, wait until you see what we are going to do next,” Kristensen said.
