Clinical instructor Allison Grady shows a baby manikin to guests touring the Ziemer Simulation Center. Looking on are Theresa Robinson (from left), Dave Robinson, Jos. Sauer and Kathryn Sauer. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Dean Kim Litwack talks about the center, flanked by several nursing students. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Scott Conger, past chair of the UWM Alumni Association board, along with TJ Edson and Melissa Paulson-Conger, learn what happens in the skills lab from nursing student Sarah Lechtenberg and clinical instructor Kathleen Fitzpatrick. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
James Ziemer shares why he and his wife, Yvonne, choose to invest in UWM and the future of nursing. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Student Emma Marlow and clinical simulation instructor Amanda Wrobel show how students work with high-fidelity manikins. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Madeline Belshaw, a junior, practices inserting an IV into a manikin arm that she says is so realistic you can feel where the vein is. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Dean Kim Litwack shows a GE Healthcare incubator for ill infants to GE Healthcare partners Faye Aebly, Neal Sandy and Sherrie Reiser. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Chancellor Mark Mone provides remarks to the guests at the grand opening. “The entire world is facing shortages of nurses and health care professionals, and the Ziemer Clinical Simulation Center is a clear example of UWM’s commitment to preparing strong practitioners to enter the workforce,” he said. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Patrick Kessenich, director of major and planned giving at UWM, takes Judith Miller, Carol Waugh and Alice Kuramoto on a tour of the center. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Attending the grand opening are Vice Chancellor Joan Nesbitt (from left), Dean Kim Litwack, Yvonne Ziemer, Jim Ziemer and Chancellor Mark Mone. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Some of the staff who demonstrated the Ziemer Clinical Simulation Center's capabilities at the grand opening include Melissa Melcher (from left), Allison Grady, Trina Basta, Amanda Wrobel, Jessica Rotier (center director), Raghad Tawalbeh, Katie McCoy and Wyatt Meyer. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
UWM celebrated the opening of the James and Yvonne Ziemer Clinical Simulation Center, a state-of-the-art facility designed to train the next generation of health care professionals, with a grand opening event on Nov. 1.
Dozens of students, faculty, staff, campus leaders and community members got a look at the 22,000-square-foot center at the Northwest Quadrant during the invitation-only event.
The center, which opened for use at the start of fall semester, includes experiential learning spaces like staged hospital, surgical, intensive care unit and labor/delivery rooms, complete with sophisticated manikins that breathe, sweat and give birth. There are simulated settings for an apartment and clinic, as well as lab spaces.
“The need for transformation in health care is no longer something we should do; it has become something we must do,” said Kim Litwack, dean of the College of Nursing, said at the event.