A new $37.3-million nursing building at Thompson Rivers University was opened today with a virtual ceremony because of COVID-19.

B.C.’s Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Ronna-Rae Leonard says the three-storey Chappell Family Building for Nursing and Population Health will be a state of the art hub for learning in Kamloops with 48 beds – three times the number of beds in the existing Ken Lepin Building – that she says will help meet the demand for well-trained nurses, health-care assistants, respiratory therapists, and other health workers.

“It will allow TRU students to use the same equipment that they would in our hospitals and laboratories,” she said. “We are in the middle of a pandemic which just underlines the need for healthcare professionals who have trained in the most modern facilities available”

The new building will house nursing and allied health programs at TRU including bachelor of science in nursing, health-care assistant and masters of nursing. The building will have classrooms, patient simulation labs, a home-care simulation lab, seminar rooms, student lounges, research space, and breakout rooms.

Dean of Nursing Rani Srivastava says most of the coursework will be online this school year, but some students began entering the building last month.

“It’s just so exciting to see students in those beautiful labs,” she added. “There are aspects of the learning that cannot be done in the same way virtually and so, all four years of our students will be in the building, in the lab, at some point in time during the semesters.”

The province contributed $8-million towards the project, with the university covering the rest of the cost.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created much uncertainty across the world, but one thing it’s made certain for us is the value of individuals who work in health care and of the training that equips them with the skills they need to be successful,” said TRU President and vice-chancellor, Brett Fairbairn.

According to the province, nurses and health-care assistants are in-demand with over 5,000 job openings for registered nurses, practical nurses and health-care assistants in the Thompson-Okanagan expected by 2029. Provincewide, that number is more than 78,000 over the next decade.

Construction on the new nursing building began with site clearing in April 2018.