Ball State College of Health to ‘Co-Mingle’
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe dean of Ball State University’s newly-launched College of Health says its focus will be on preparing students for the collaborative environment they will face when entering the work force. Though the school is made up of existing majors, Mitchell Whaley says it will break down traditional "silos" that have prevented a more team-oriented style of learning. He says a "co-mingle" approach is closer to the real-world experience. During an interview last weekend on Inside INdiana Business Television, Whaley told Business of Health Reporter Barbara Lewis a new building for the school and partnership with the Miller College of Business are next.
The school concept was approved by the board of trustees a year ago and in February, received the university’s final blessing. The college will include 19 clinics, centers or labs, such as an audiology clinic in the Arts and Communication Building and the Fisher Institute of Health and Well-Being in the Health and Physical Activity Building. "In addition to traditional things that you would think about in an academic building, we’ll have about 30,000 square-feet of simulation space where the students will practice working with simulated patients. All the different majors will be involved in the simulations. We also will have clinics in the building, so we will be serving out local community and the region and those folks will be treated and cared-for by student teams and faculty teams." Whaley says the "interprofessional education" model is a national movement and will be "engineered" into the student experience.
The new building is set to open in 2019. Whaley says graduates who serve in the health care industry will enter a market that is expected to grow by about 24 percent in Indiana over the next decade.