Sam Houston State University has begun renovations to The Woodlands Center that will triple the interior space for its School of Nursing, aiming to boost enrollment by nearly 70% by 2026. The $13–$14 million project adds more simulation labs, classrooms, and training facilities to help meet Texas’s ongoing workforce shortage.
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In November, Sam Houston State University started a multimillion-dollar restoration of The Woodlands Center. The project aims to triple the School of Nursing's interior space and significantly boost the university's capacity to educate nurses.
Dr. Devon M. Berry, director of the SHSU School of Nursing, said the remodeling, expected to cost between $13 million and $14 million, will add active-learning classrooms, skills laboratories, and simulation labs without expanding the campus. For roughly 2.5 years, people have been working on the project's plans.
Berry remarked, "We wanted to see what we could do to help lower the need for nurses." "So that meant we had to ask ourselves, 'What can we do to get more students to sign up?'" Can we graduate more nurses each year to help meet those workforce needs in Texas?"
Berry remarked that nursing schools often face three challenges as they strive to grow: insufficient classroom space, insufficient clinical placements, and insufficient nursing faculty. The new remodeling immediately addresses the lack of space. She said, "We needed to add more classrooms and labs to teach more students."
The new simulation labs will be like aircraft training simulators in that they will provide students with genuine, hands-on experience. Berry said that simulation hours can reduce the number of clinical hours needed, as long as the standards are maintained. She said, "This lets us give the students even more practice in a safe and controlled setting." "The clinical hours are still critical."
Since the first group of nursing students graduated from SHSU 13 years ago, almost 1,400 nurses have graduated from the school. Many of them still live in the area. Berry noted that the institution would be able to develop much further after the new buildings are finished, which is expected around September 2026.
SHSU aims to achieve three years of enrollment growth after the remodeling, roughly doubling the number of nursing students. Enrollment would increase from 85 students twice a year to 144. This would put the school between 650 and 750 overall students, up from its current 400 to 500.
Berry added that the university expects the money to help the local healthcare workforce for a long time.
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