When Modesto Junior College officials brag that their new allied health building is the envy of many prestigious medical teaching institutions, they're not kidding.
The $23.4 million building on the MJC West Campus — called Glacier Hall — officially was dedicated last week. But it's what is inside the sweeping, angular building that makes it state of the art. That includes animatronic medical mannequins that cry and sweat, smart boards that operate by touch, and lecture halls fully wired for video, sound and interactivity.
"We look at our campus and this new building as a leader in this area," said Maurice McKinnon, the dean of Allied Health-Family Consumer Sciences for MJC. "We want to take a leadership role in teaching nursing in the valley and California."
The building opened to students in the fall, although some of its larger lecture halls and technology weren't fully installed until the start of this semester.
The nursing and various medical teaching programs used to be in the smaller John Muir Hall, also on the west campus. But in 2004, voter approval of the $326 million bond Measure E allowed MJC to build a new larger, vastly upgraded facility.
Glacier Hall houses four programs: the two-year nursing program, the two-year respiratory care program, the one-year medical assisting program and the one-semester nursing assistant program.
The building also was supposed to accommodate the college's dental program, but it was eliminated last year in budget cuts forced by a drop in state funding.
The change has left a third of the lower level empty, although the space is being used for some teaching and study activities, McKinnon said.
The two-story, 40,275-square-foot building has two large lecture halls for 90-plus people as well as two computer labs, classrooms and labs for various skills.
Surplus of applicants
The nursing and medical programs have been popular at MJC for years, with hundreds more applicants than openings each year. The associate degree in nursing program is the school's largest and most popular. About 700 students apply, but only about 75 are admitted each semester via a lottery system.
Respiratory care admits about 30, medical nursing from 25 to 50 and nursing assisting about 40 each semester. All the programs have more applicants than admissions.
For the students who make it into the program, the new building with all its bells and whistles is a major and welcome upgrade from the old site.
"This is just wonderful, it feels like we're at Stanford," said student Ann Seymour of Modesto. "There is so much more room; we're not stepping over each other anymore. It's so realistic, you feel like you're in a hospital. It allows us to prepare with confidence."
The building's largest lab is for nursing skills. It has 24 hospital beds and 24 medical mannequins as well as assorted anatomical body parts for teaching and practice. The old building had half the beds and mannequins, and all were older and outdated.
Other labs, including respiratory care, are similarly fitted with the latest technology. Respiratory care includes seven new ventilators to let students learn on the kind of equipment they'll be working with in hospitals after graduation.
Some of the machines are so advanced, hospitals don't even have them yet.
"We've had older graduates come back down and get jealous about the new building and equipment," said respiratory care program director Philip Labrador. "We're really simulating an ICU, and the students get real experience on the most advanced vents instead of old, outdated vents that weren't preparing them for the real world."
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