Goshen College holds ribbon cutting ceremony for new Center for Nursing and Public Health

On Wednesday, May 7, Goshen College held a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house for its new Center for Nursing and Public Health. The building has been in use for a full semester already, and features offices, classrooms, laboratories, study areas, and areas to be utilized by commuter students, like kitchens, showers, and break rooms. In the fall, the college will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

According to an article on Goshen College’s website, the college’s president, Rebecca Stoltzfus, was quoted as saying during the ceremony, “The academic programs housed in this building — nursing and public health — are deeply connected to our local community. We have been planning for the Center for Nursing and Public Health for six years in partnership with numerous regional healthcare providers. We are fortunate and grateful to work with Goshen Health and Greencroft as neighbors, clinical partners, thought partners, generous donors and employers of our graduates.”

Goshen Health and Greencroft Communities were both instrumental in bringing the new Center for Nursing and Public Health to fruition. Both organizations are located right next to Goshen College’s campus and continue to play a role in the college’s healthcare education programs.

Goshen Health is a clinical rotation site for Goshen College’s nursing students. In the Center for Nursing and Public Health project, Goshen Health was heavily involved in the creation of the Goshen Health Simulation Lab, which features high-fidelity manikins and an observation room. The lab was designed to give students the opportunity to practice both the everyday tasks that will become routine during their career as well as the more unexpected incidents they will also need to learn how to navigate.

Julie Crossley, who serves as the chief nursing officer at Goshen Health, said, “When I think about what Goshen College is doing, having these state-of-the-art facilities just brings [the nursing program] up to the level of excellence that the program has always been known for.” She continued, “There’s an endless list of ways that we’ve been collaborating [with GC]. It’s not often that you have a health system and a college directly across the street from one another. That allows us to be efficient and capitalize on the resources that we each have. We have created some very shared strategic priorities. The design work that went both into Westlawn and into the new patient tower at Goshen Health created a very similar, familiar environment — to the benefit of the students both as they are learning here, and also when they are working within the health system.”

Greencroft Communities, which is a continued care retirement facility, also provides job opportunities for Goshen College healthcare graduates after they complete their education. For the Center for Nursing and Public Health, Greencroft Communities provided funding for the largest classroom in the building. 

Hugh Davis, the president and CEO of Greencroft, said, “I truly believe, with all of my heart, that Greencroft — both here in Goshen, and now with our footprint throughout multiple states — would not be the Greencroft that we know today without our geographic proximity to Goshen College.”

As the college looks ahead to the future of its healthcare education programs, it has taken into consideration the need for commuter students to have access to resources that will help them succeed in their courses, clinical placements, and internship programs. This has led the college to include facilities for them within the new building such as showers and kitchens to help them prepare for their long days on and around campus.

With the new building in place and having been used for a full semester, the college is seeing an increased interest in its nursing programs, which include the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the Master of Science in Nursing with a Family Nurse Practitioner track, and an online Doctor of Nursing Practice.

For more information about Goshen College, visit the school’s website.