Health Sciences EXPANDS

MU is expanding the College of Health Sciences by renovating and converting the former Frontier Communications building on Lake Street. The building will be a multi-purpose community and academic facility, which will help meet the growing need for health care professionals and services both locally and nationally.

The $6 million project is supported by $2.75 million in Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development funding through the offices of Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell; state Senator Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township; Senator Raphael Musto, D-Pittston Township; and Representative Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake.

“All of us at Misericordia University are delighted that the governor has joined with Senators Baker, Musto and Representative Boback to provide us with this important support,’’ said Michael A. MacDowell, president. “The purchase and renovation of the former Frontier Communications building represents a true partnership among the public sectors, and state and local government.”

The president added that the officials’ leadership was the impetus behind this accomplishment. “But this civic-minded project has also received significant support from the private sector, the Borough of Dallas and Dallas Township as well.’’

The three-story, 40,000-square-foot building will house the nursing, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy and physical therapy departments and allow the university to meet the demand for free or low-cost clinics that MU offers to the community through the Speech-Language and Hearing Center and the Physical Therapy Department Clinic. It will also introduce a collaborative working relationship between MU and the Commonwealth Medical College’s Wilkes-Barre-branch campus.

More health care professionals graduate from Misericordia University than any other college or university in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The expanded College of Health Sciences will allow the institution to increase the number of graduates by 55 percent in five years. MU is the leader in health science education, offering six bachelor’s-level, four master’s-level and two doctoral-level curricula in nursing, medical imaging, sonography, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy and physical therapy. The university also features strong pre-medicine, pre-optometry and pre-veterinary programs.

“Misericordia will expand significantly the number of quality nurses, medical imagists, sonographers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists who graduate from the university as a result of the new College of Health Sciences,’’ President MacDowell added. “After receiving their degrees, these health care professionals will serve the ever-increasing health care needs of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth.’’

The new building will offer students increased clinical and laboratory space and afford MU the opportunity to include the latest in therapeutic and clinical simulation models, like the Sim-Man for nursing students and a sensory motor room for autistic clients of the Speech-Language and Hearing Center.

With an enrollment of more than 2,500 students, 47 percent of MU’s full-time student body and about 35 percent of its part-time and graduate students are enrolled in the health sciences. To date, almost 5,000 professionals or 31 percent of our alumni base have graduated from Misericordia with degrees in the health sciences.

MU’s health sciences department is looking forward to growth. “I think it shows an investment in health sciences,” said Dr. Jean Dyer, Dean of the College of Health Sciences. “At this point in time we are hoping to grow these programs and service the community in an even more effective way because we will have the facilities to that that.”

The funding will not only provide the financial strength to purchase more space, but it will also be used to buy new technology. Plans for the classrooms include distance-conferencing capability, an interactive clicker system and human simulators. The simulators will allow students to practice what they’ve learned on mannequins, while those who aren’t participating will have the opportunity to observe and learn from their peers through surveillance videos.

Professors will be trained to use the new technology, launching a process that Dyer describes as “bringing all of the programs into the 21st century of educating health professionals.”

The move will have a positive impact on faculty and students alike, as the stronger curriculum will allow professors to teach more effectively, creating a domino effect that impacts students’ attitudes. “The preparation of students will be enhanced going out and they will go out with more confidence as a result because they will feel better about themselves and what they’ve done in their labs.”

Dyer also anticipates that this transition will have a positive effect on enrollment. “Misericordia’s College of Health Sciences will be recognized as having state-of-the-art educational facilities that are expected by potential students and their parents now, because that is the way health professionals need to be educated.”

This project will not only add temporary construction jobs, but permanent jobs as well -- 450 to be exact. Two companies, Home Depot and Quietflex Manufacturing, will assist with the project.

“I am thrilled to work with them [Home Depot] again,” said MacDowell. He congratulated the firms for their economic success through hard times and ended on a positive note. “We won’t let you down.”