UVA has opened a new, $16.6 million nursing education center at its College at Wise in Southwestern Virginia as part of our efforts to improve care for underserved areas of the state and to help address the nursing shortage that plagues the nation as a whole.
The high-tech, 28,500-square-foot education center includes upgraded classrooms, three skilled-nursing labs, two simulations labs and four exam rooms, as well as group study space, offices and a large lecture hall.
“These improvements will not only expand opportunities for students in health care and in nursing, but also will entice more students to choose nursing as a career and will ultimately help to address the nursing shortage and improve health outcomes for patients and families in the region,” UVA President Jim Ryan said at the dedication of the facility. (Improving care access across Virginia is a major component of UVA Health's long-term strategic plan.)
Called the Don R. Pippin & John C. Wyllie Hall, the new center is named for two UVA alums who were major contributors to what we now know as the College at Wise.
Pippin led the efforts in Virginia's General Assembly to rename what was then UVA's Clinch Valley College as UVA Wise. He graduated from Clinch Valley, UVA and UVA's School of Law, going on to serve two terms on UVA's Board of Visitors.
Wyllie, a 1929 UVA graduate, helped UVA Wise develop its first library, hauling books from Charlottesville to Southwest Virginia in his car trunk. The first UVA Wise library was named in his honor, and his efforts for both UVA's library system and the College at Wise will continue to be honored with the naming of the new nursing center.