A message from the President
Welcome to the CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education, Creighton University’s new headquarters for the health sciences and the home of our School of Medicine.
Led by the generosity of CL and Rachel Werner, this donor-driven facility establishes another treasure supporting the University’s reputation as a national leader in preparing students for interprofessional, team-based health care. This self-guided tour pays tribute to those who joined Rachel and CL in supporting this project and highlights points of interest in a unique environment that reflects our Jesuit values.
The CL and Rachel Werner Center is a beacon of our commitment to the interdisciplinary education model we developed to teach health care leaders. Within these walls, we will prepare our students to become the inspiring change agents our world needs. Please enjoy the tour.
The Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD
President, Creighton University
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Tour Sections:
A New Front Door
First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Fourth Floor
By the Numbers
A New Front Door
To the tens of thousands who will drive by it every day, Creighton’s gorgeous new front door immediately east of U.S. Highway 75 announces loud and clear the University’s bold and ever-evolving presence, in Omaha and beyond. This 145,000-square-foot, five-story facility will bring future physicians, nurses, OTs, PTs, pharmacists and EMS technicians all together to learn and work under one roof. An estimated 5,900 students, faculty, staff and visitors will use the building every year.
And please note the Thomas Hunter Memorial Sculpture on display outside the building. This life-size bronze sculpture of Thomas was gifted to the University by his parents, Claire Bogasch Hunter, MD’83, and William J. Hunter, III, MD’71, and sculpted by artist Littleton Alston.
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First Floor
Beyond the glass-encased entryway — one of the CL and Rachel Werner Center’s signature architectural features — you will find the Rehabilitation Science Research Labs.
These labs bring together faculty committed to improving the rehabilitation, health and wellness of patients, while broadening community outreach and advancing the education of rehabilitation scientists. Look to the labs’ ceilings, and you will notice support structures that can hold lifts, zero-entry treadmills and other tools designed for working with paraplegic and quadriplegic patients.
Also on the first floor, there’s the Virtual Reality Room, a three-wall projected space faculty and students interact with via touchscreens. This state-of-the-art technology is capable of immersing our learners in countless combinations of settings and scenarios. Complementary equipment, such as manikins designed specifically for the VR room, allow faculty to flip the space from clinic to hospital bed to triage experience and back again, all in a matter of minutes. Like virtually every space in the CL and Rachel Werner Center, the VR Room is mobile, versatile, transformative.
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Second Floor
In the second floor’s Rehab Lab, plinth and mat tables can be used for a variety of training exercises. Technology within the lab makes it possible for the instructor to stream content at the teaching station to monitors throughout the lab.
One of the second floor’s most distinct areas is the Home Care Lab, a space designed to resemble a small apartment. Replicating the inherent challenges found in a typical living space, the Home Care Lab allows students to train within a natural environment through such simulations as fall emergencies, home health visits and patient rehabilitation. The lab reveals the power of treatment and rehab sessions in a non-clinical setting. It gives our students the opportunity to develop the skills, empathy and understanding needed to care for patients in the best possible recovery environment — wherever they call home.
In the Acute Care Lab, meanwhile, you will find a space where students can quickly move from course content to practice and back again, all within the lab environment. The lab’s flexible
structure facilitates individual and small-group learning among our students, while hospital beds and exam tables let them practice peer-to-peer or manikin-based skills.
The second floor’s 90-seat classroom promotes active learning. Open to multiple programs, this room offers students the space and flexibility to work together as a team. CL and Rachel Werner Center rooms like these are where our students will learn the art and science of delivering compassionate and collaborative care to their patients.
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Third Floor
The third floor is also home to the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation Simulation Center, a collection of 10 high-tech simulation rooms representing a number of unique hospital environments. The simulations (in which actors or faculty roleplay as patients) will present scenarios in obstetrics, general medicine, trauma care, surgery and intimate care settings such as hospice. Instructors in the control room will monitor students and manage each simulation as the scenarios unfold. These fully immersive, high-fidelity replicas will help prepare our students for the real-world scenarios they’ll soon face.
The third floor also contains the David Vesely, MD, PhD, BS’67, Task Training Lab. This flexible task training environment will house tabletop trainers for low-fidelity skills therapy. The lab will be available for self-directed learning outside of class time so students may increase the number of repetitions and develop competencies. The lab converts to a classroom, providing additional active learning space.
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Fourth Floor
For every Creighton health sciences student, some days are going to be more intense than others. Between all the long hours in the classrooms and labs, they’re going to need a place where they can take deep breathes of fresh outdoor air stat. The Mutual of Omaha Terrace has them covered. Located just outside the learning commons, this beautiful fourth-floor terrace is sure to be a favorite gathering spot for Creighton health sciences students from every program.
The CL and Rachel Werner Center’s fourth floor doesn’t just go outside; it also crosses the street. The FNBO Bridge — a skywalk over Burt Street that connects the building to the Criss
Complex — physically and figuratively links research to practice, undergraduates to professional students and each of the health sciences disciplines to every other.
This prime architectural feature — contributed by the Lauritzen Family, the John and Elizabeth Lauritzen Foundation and First National Bank — will long be remembered for its beauty, its convenience and the countless connections it will have made possible.
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The CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education By the Numbers
The need for this state-of-the-art space couldn’t be more clear. On Creighton’s Omaha campus:
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60% of freshman undergraduates are health sciences majors.
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More than 3,100 Creighton students are enrolled in a health sciences school or college.
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1,500 students are pursuing undergraduate degrees leading to professional school admission.
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80% of Creighton undergraduates come from outside Nebraska.
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Omaha is the 8th best metro area for health care access in the U.S.
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Thank you so much for taking this tour. We hope you enjoyed learning about this new building.
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