Ribbon cutting at McPherson Hall

Nursing students are now able to attend classes with not only a renovated lecture hall but are now able to use some progressive technology. The ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Friday, Oct. 4 in the Irene Ransom Bradley School of Nursing building where students and private investors could see the new changes.  

“Nurses must be well trained,” Scott said. “Their work is so crucial.”  

The goal of the renovations was to fulfil the need of modernization, increase enrollment, and provide current students with some modernized technology to further advance their knowledge.  

The renovations were paid for with private donations, from Freeman Hospital, as well as other private donors. These donations would give the lecture hall its updated interior design, the lighting, and lecture monitors since the original lay out of its opening.  

Other private investors, including alumni of the department, said the building had kept its same look since they were in school over twenty years ago so many people, students and alumni included, felt that some change was needed. Some of the new features include brand-new projector screens and two new televisions. One of the newest updates to the building was the star of the show, the Anatomage. The anatomage, which is a virtual table that will give nursing students a chance to dissect a human body, allowing the students to learn the human body on a more realistic level than what they had available before.  

The idea to have this new technology came to mind a year ago on Sept. 12 of 2018 when President Steve Scott and private investors toured the building and thought about how it would look with a digital cadaver and how it could advance the construction. The tool was mentioned when it was seen during tours schools in Kansas City. After this touring, it seemed like this would be a great tool for Pittsburg State as well. It would fit the training needs of the nursing students. 

Pitt State collaborated with Freeman health systems to make this all possible. Plans were made and action was taken to put the plans in motion. The touchscreen would allow students to visualize anatomy as they would on an actual human body. The touchscreen is already being using during classes.  

Junior nursing student Abby Normand was one of the students that were given the opportunity to text out the anatomage, saying the cadaver had some interesting facts behind it. 

“The model they showed today for the unveiling of the lecture hall and cadaver, it was actually used with a meat cleaver and cut into, I believe, over 8,000 pieces and taken several thousand images of his body and he was actually a serial killer,” Normand said.  

Dr. Scott also wanted to stop and thank the nursing students for their outstanding work with this new technology.   

“This group is knocking it out of the park with the goals of Pittsburg State University,” Scott said. “Stop and say thank you for what you do.”