Health education spaces are supporting whole student health

This blog post was authored by Sumegha Shah, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Principal, Senior Client Leader - Education Practice, CannonDesign.

As healthcare delivery is rapidly changing, today's students and tomorrow's healthcare providers are required to understand, participate in, develop and advocate for continuous improvement for integrated health systems. We are seeing health education institutions keep pace by helping students better understand the impact of social determinants on patient health—a key influencer of care delivery—and integrating building features that support overall student health.

More than ever before, emphasis on personal well-being is critical to students practicing in healthcare, allowing them to educate their patients on health and well-being strategies while implementing some of those same practices in their own lives. We partner with clients to create enhanced learning environments that enable students, faculty, researchers and staff to effectively operate on all levels of social, emotional, technological, and inter-professional learning to help them meet this expectation.

Institutions are investing in collaborative environments that encourage students to promote well-being for patients and themselves.

Our approach to designing these spaces leverages our comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem where these complex facilities live—healthcare, research and education—as well as our expertise in designing buildings and spaces that promote the mental and physical well-being of its users. To train a new generation of health professionals focused on transforming the experience of care, our solutions balance the need for adaptable space to practice clinical techniques with the need to support students holistically.

Here are a few recent health education projects preparing the healthcare students to foster human resilience—for patients and themselves:

Old Dominion University, Health Sciences Building

Old Dominion University’s new Health Sciences Building aims to reshape the academic and physical landscape of campus, providing health sciences with a building that serves as a home for the departmental community. The 126,000 sf multi-story building houses the schools of Dental Hygiene, Rehabilitation Science, Medical Diagnostics and Translational Sciences, a dental hygiene clinic and Monarch Physical Therapy, which currently serves the local community. 

The spaces in the building are designed to offer students hands-on experience in teaching and simulation laboratories, classrooms and an open collaborative environment. To enhance the learning and environment and support student well-being, the building features amenities at varying scales of privacy, including kitchenettes, lounges, student lockers, conference and meeting rooms and group study spaces, both open and closed. To provide daylight and views to a larger number of building occupants, open workstations are located on the perimeter while private offices are located on the interior with glazed walls to take advantage of borrowed light and views.

St. John’s University, St. Vincent Health Sciences Center 

The new Health Sciences Center and St. John’s University is a new energy-efficient academic building that will support and house existing and forthcoming health sciences programs in one facility. The 70,000-sf building located on the edge of the campus’ historic Great Lawn features active learning classrooms, laboratories, simulation facilities, office space, collaborative spaces and outdoor terraces. 

Designed to meet health education needs of today and adapt to future needs, the building program intentionally fosters community among students and faculty. The interior focal point is a skylit three-story study commons, mimicking a “living room” of the building that promotes planned and chance interactions. The building also features a scalable approach to sustainability, implementing design strategies that offer flexible reprogramming of spaces, maximize natural daylight for building occupants and contribute to the University’s carbon reduction efforts.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Simulation Lab  

The renovated 40,000-sf simulation lab positions the UTHealth School of Nursing as a leading institution in training exceptional nurses and allied health professionals. The lab is designed to provide high-quality interdisciplinary simulation experiences throughout the pre-licensure nursing curriculum, offering students a supportive and collaborative learning environment. With a goal to create spaces that bring together nursing professionals and foster growth within their programs, the lab was designed to integrate students from nursing and other health disciplines into a truly interprofessional learning environment. 

Through new construction and renovation projects, institutions are creating laboratories, classrooms, simulators and in-between spaces that empower students and faculty to flourish. The goal is to equip future health professionals with the skills needed to enhance care delivery while also creating environments that support whole student health.