By Andrea Hein, Harris College Communication Intern

Beginning in January students may notice some changes to the Bass Building. The first steps of preparation for the new building addition will be visible to students and faculty very soon.

Plans for the new addition to the current home of the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences have been created by Cannon Designs. This is the same designer who provided designs for the residential Commons and the Brown Lupton University Union (BLUU).

Some features of the new building may include a larger student study area complete with a microwave and refrigerator, as well as a new computer instruction lab with portable laptops or tablets.

“It will be nice to have more room. Right now we feel a little crammed for space,” said sophomore nursing major Maddie Holmes.

One of the most significant additions to the new building will be the expansion of current simulation labs. A plan to create a “mock primary care clinic” complete with a main lobby to greet patients, treatments rooms, and actors to simulate the feeling of a real clinical experience. Space for de-briefing rooms is also planned so students can reflect on what they just experienced in clinicals with their supervisor.

Holmes expressed her excitement about the new simulation labs and the ability to de-brief in new classrooms after a simulation. “It will be great to reflect on what you just learned with fellow classmates and the instructor,” she said.

The new space will bring together faculty who are currently housed across three different buildings.

“One of my professors is in the GrandMarc now, so it will be nice for them to be more central to all of our classes. They should have an office in the nursing building,” Holmes said.

Paulette Burn, dean of Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences, held multiple informational sessions in the Bass Building to share information and plans for the new addition. Students, faculty and staff were all invited to attend these meetings.

“We are in a time of transition in the world,” Burns said.

Another goal for the new building is to create a clear main entrance to visitors and students. The Bass building has not received any external additions or major renovations since the mid 1970s. This entrance will be accompanied by a “healing garden” to introduce the feeling of health and wellness as visitors enter the building. “The garden will be maintained by nutrition students,” Burns said.

“One of the primary goals in planning the new building was incorporating more offices, access to light and a feeling of “warmth and orientation,” Burns said.

Jimmie Borum, assistant professor of professional practice, is also very excited about the new space in the Bass building. “The most important reason I am excited is [because the space] will enable us to meet the nursing students’ learning needs. The number of clinical sites that we use has remained constant or decreased over the past several years while our enrollment has doubled,” Borum said.

“The new space is designed to have hospital-like pediatric and maternity areas equipped with high fidelity simulators where students will provide total care to the pediatric and maternity patients. There will be a task training room where students will use equipment that will allow them to learn how to take blood pressures, start IVs and perform other fundamental nursing skills prior to performing these skills on actual patients,” Borum said.

“I feel that the entire nursing faculty will be able to contribute to the body of knowledge associated with simulations,” Borum said.

“The other thing that excited me regarding the new building is that it is being designed to meet our immediate needs and the projected needs of the future, and that we have the opportunity to become a simulation center of excellence. In the future I see TCU being the place where other nursing programs come to learn how to do simulation. A very exciting prospect,” said Borum.

The building construction tape and plastic will be visible as early as Dec. 17, the Monday following graduation. Burns said the building is scheduled to open in fall 2014.

“Overall it sounds exciting. I did not even know about this project, and I am anxious to see it be built while I am at TCU,” Holmes said.