Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and Congressman Stephen Lynch—along with UMass Board of Trustees Chairman Stephen Karam, Provost Joseph Berger, Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean Bo Fernhall, and students—cut the ribbon on May 12 on a new immersive reality nursing lab to enhance simulated training of future nurses.

A first of its kind in Massachusetts, the new Home Care Digital and Simulation Lab was made possible with $3 million in federal funding secured by Congressman Lynch. The new lab will expand training opportunities at the Center for Clinical Education & Research, housed within the Manning College, which has the largest Department of Nursing in New England.

“This is a very big deal for UMass Boston,” said Chancellor Suárez-Orozco. “As the only public research university in Boston with nationally recognized nursing programs – in fact, we have the third-largest nursing department in the country and produce the most NCLEX certified nurses in New England annually – UMass Boston embraces our responsibility to educate health care providers in ways that serve our increasingly diverse and aging population.”

The new Home Care Digital and Simulation Lab enables the Manning College to train the next generation of nurses in care technologies in settings outside of medical facilities that replicate where they may deliver care when they are working as nurses.

“This is a reflection of the changes in our health care system,” said Congressman Lynch. “We desperately need new nurses, and we have so many young men and women who would love to be become part of that profession. It's actually the perfect storm for us in terms of having the talent here in the Greater Boston area and now having this facility as well to make that happen.

“Nurses are the backbone of our health care system.”

The new lab is located on the second floor of the Quinn Administration Building and has two specially designed rooms that use video imaging on walls, floors, and ceilings to create immersive settings in which healthcare needs or emergencies could arise. Scenarios include inside train stations and airports or playgrounds, among many others. Each immersive reality room is connected to an external observation room for viewers to monitor the trainings.

“I'm so grateful that we have this,” said Cecilia Menzinger, a UMass Boston graduate nursing student who teaches undergraduate students. “We teach nursing students a lot of hands-on skills, but this is a more interactive environment, and they get to practice those skills repeatedly…. So this is where they can make mistakes, and we teach them, correct them, and when they go out there, they represent us really well because they've won a lot here.”

“I want everybody to take note, because Cecilia is our student, but even while she's advancing her own knowledge, she's teaching others, and she's busy at work improving health in the community,” said Provost Berger. “This is what UMass Boston students are all about.”