Sim Center

History

Nevada State University (NSU) opened in 2002 as Nevada State College and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. With that also came a name change from College to University. The institution is the first and only four-year public college in Nevada, filling an organizational tier within the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) that did not previously exist. The university has experienced significant growth since the recession in 2008, necessitating the construction of new buildings on the 509-acre campus in Henderson, Nevada. NSU became fully accredited in 2010 by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The steady growth continues today and has resulted in college operations out of six buildings on the Henderson campus. Constantly growing, NSU has continued to attract a diverse student body and in 2017 was awarded the status of Hispanic-Serving Institution.

The School of Nursing (SoN) started accepting students in 2003 and reached accreditation status in 2005. The SoN hosted its third accreditation site visit by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) in 2019. Simulation, ranging from low to high fidelity, has been a keystone of teaching and learning since the early days of the program. In 2009, the NSU School of Nursing began sharing space with UNLV School of Nursing and UNLV School of Medicine in the Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas (CSCLV). In 2019, the NSU School of Nursing began construction of their own simulation lab on the nearby campus of the College of Southern Nevada, an NSHE sister institution. The project, the Betty Engelstad Health and Science Center, was funded by the State Public Works Division of the State of Nevada. The Health and Science Center houses both the Nevada State Simulation Center and the College of Southern Nevada science labs and classrooms.

In the Fall semester of 2021, the Simulation Program opened to students at the new site. The building in which the simulation center is located sits on College of Southern Nevada land, but the Nevada State University wing is owned solely by NSU (site maps and blueprints are included in this document to provide more insight). The only shared space within that building is one classroom (289). All simulation and skills lab environments, including all hallways, are dedicated to Nevada State University School of Nursing. The Nevada State Simulation Center is a 13,621 square foot facility for the purpose of low, mid-, and high-fidelity simulation activities integrated across the curriculum of the NSU School of Nursing. The simulation center serves over 500 BSN students per semester.

The NSU Simulation Program has been granted Provisional Accreditation through the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) through December 2026.