Ground breaks on Texas Tech’s El Paso nursing school

EL PASO – Ground has broken on Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing at 210 N. Concepcion St., at the intersection with Alberta Ave.

The 34,000-sf facility, located directly across from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Medical Education Building, will include 12,000 sf of simulation labs, four classrooms and collaborative learning spaces. Construction costs are estimated at $9 million, according to state filings.

The nursing school, which now operates out of a leased building at 415 E. Yandell, is scheduled to be complete by November 2014 and be ready to move in by January 2015.

There are currently 116 nursing students enrolled in the school of nursing, including 47 seniors in the traditional undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, 20 in the second degree BSN program and 49 juniors beginning the traditional undergraduate program in the fall.

The long-range goal is for the medical school to have 400 medical students and the nursing school to have 600 nurses when full.