More health care workers for Colorado

With the state facing a critical shortage of skilled health care workers, Metropolitan State University of Denver has embarked on an ambitious plan to expand its capacity to meet the growing demand.

The University has begun work on a new 18,000-square-foot health simulation laboratory that will allow it to train more nurses and other health professionals in facilities that mirror clinical environments.

MSU Denver also aims to construct a 70,000-square-foot health education building that will let the University bring its health-related academic programs under one roof. The new facility, MSU Denver leaders said, would also increase student capacity by an average of 32% in those programs, which currently enroll more than 5,200 students.

“Colorado needs these students in the workforce now more than ever,” said President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., noting that the state had nearly 900,000 unique health care job postings last year, according to a 2022 Talent Pipeline Report. “We need to do everything we can to fill that pipeline.”

In 2018, the University created its Health Institute, a collaboration among 10 academic departments and programs. MSU Denver’s interdisciplinary emphasis is unique, said Emily Matuszewicz, D.C., the Health Institute’s director of Development and Partnerships.

“We’re working not just to build capacity for more students in health fields,” she said, “but to provide those students a better academic experience across multiple disciplines so that they can become problem-solvers and leaders in the industry.”

While the institute has been in place for five years, a centralized physical space has been harder to come by. MSU Denver is pursuing state and private funding to increase its ability to serve students.

Last year, MSU Denver received $10 million from the state to build the Health Institute Simulation Labs, a renovation of the West Classroom building on the Auraria Campus that will more than double the capacity of the Nursing Department. The University currently turns away about half of its Nursing applicants because of space constraints.

The new simulation facility, on track to be completed by summer 2024, will feature skills labs, simulated hospital rooms, a nurse station and an ambulance bay.

The health education building, known as the Health Institute Tower project, is envisioned as an addition to the aforementioned West Classroom building. The interdisciplinary health facility would include labs and technology that could reduce dependence on scarce clinical placements.

“Getting to practice all of our techniques will help us with knowing patients’ health and keeping patient care a priority,” said MSU Denver student Virginia Navarro, an Exercise Science major who wants to become a physical therapist. “These new labs are really going to help.”

MSU Denver doesn’t want to merely plug vacancies in Colorado’s health care fields; it wants to fill them with workers who reflect the communities they serve. The Health Institute offers robust financial aid and support services to attract students from underserved communities.

“There’s more and more evidence telling us that when a provider looks like the patient, or when a provider has some lived experience connected to that patient … you have better health outcomes,” Matuszewicz said. “Colorado is a largely medically underserved state, so we’re trying to serve as many health care students as possible.”