WSU to build health simulator on Spokane campus

(As reported in the Spokesman Review by Tod Stephens)

Washington State University officials submitted a remodel permit application to the city of Spokane to build a health simulator at its Spokane campus.

A project contemplated by the Center for Native American Health, the simulator will be, “the nation’s first indigenous-developed and instructed clinical simulation space,” according to a report published in WSU Insider.

Located in the Health Education and Research Building, 665 N. Riverpoint Blvd., the project will span roughly 1,300 square feet and be used to simulate a real hospital with patient-exam rooms, multiple offices, storage and a conference room, plans show.

The operation will function with the guidance of Indigenous health professionals. Both Native and non-Native students and clinicians will “gain a holistic view of care with the help of Native instructors in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health, and areas of traditional healing perspectives,” the WSU report read.

“Throughout our histories and across the world, it has taken the listening ears, minds and hearts of our allies and friends who wanted to see a more peaceful, kind and equitable world,” Naomi Bender, director of WSU Spokane’s Native American Health Sciences program, told the WSU Insider.

Plans were submitted by Kendra Kurz, project manager at WSU, who could not immediately be reached last week for comment.

The estimated cost of the undertaking is $560,000, of which $250,000 will be paid for by a grant from Bank of America, according to a news release.

Graham Construction, a Calgary, Alberta-based firm, will remodel the space. DLR Group, with headquarters in Omaha, designed the project.