CityLab profiles Malcolm X College teaching hospital

Malcolm X College has invested in new architecture and high-tech simulation space to prepare its students to take future jobs in health care.

By CityLab, CannonDesign January 9, 2017

Malcolm X College has invested in new architecture and high-tech simulation space to prepare its students to take future jobs in health care. The new profile piece by the publication City Lab-"Why This Teaching Hospital Only Has Fake Patients"-focuses on Malcolm X College’s breakthrough new teaching hospital.

Located in the Near West Side of Chicago and near the Illinois Medical District, Malcolm X College is a strategic response to the rapid evolution of health care in the U.S., specifically Chicago. Recognizing a gap in between the current market of qualified health care professionals and the projected 84,000 health care jobs set to come online in the Chicago region over the next decade, City Colleges of Chicago has created a dynamic learning environment that can help their students from across the city seize these opportunities.

The full piece can be read online. Below are key excerpts.

On shifting community college perceptions

"We want to change the dynamics of what people think about community college," says Malcolm X Interim President David Sanders, "So that the school is seen as a first-class institution that compares to the University of Chicago or Loyola."

That goal is in reach in terms of the quality of the space and the instruction (Nearby Rush University Medical Center is one institutional partner.) However, the demographic realities at Malcolm X set it apart from Chicago’s elite and expensive private universities. It draws students from all over the city, but abuts one of Chicago’s poorest quarters. For some, "Being on campus might be the safest place they can be. The meal they have on campus may be the best meal they have all day," says CannonDesign’s Jim Jankowski.

"To meet students where they are, CannonDesign condensed a range of student-outreach services in the first two floors, creating a literal and metaphorical heart of the building," says CannonDesign Chicago Office Leader Tim Swanson. "There’s a cafeteria, student union, a daycare center on the first floor, and the second floor has academic support services and a library."

On the college’s dynamic health teaching environments

"The top floor has a variety of different health care environments. There are exam rooms with computers wired to a database filled with hypothetical patient records. There are pediatric wards, an emergency room, and a mock living room for health care providers and paramedics in training. There’s also a set of doors that open to the business end of an ambulance," says Jankowski.

The operating rooms put instructors behind a two-way mirror for observation and record student performance with a camera. When the lesson is over, they review the video together or send it home with students on a thumb drive.

Connecting all of these simulation exercises together means the school focuses on areas where patient care falters most.


-This article originally appeared on the CannonDesign Blog. CannonDesign is a CFE Media content partner.