UArizona College of Nursing Celebrates Opening of MEPN Program in Gilbert

What: College of Nursing Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
When: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 3-5 p.m.
Where: University Building, 92 West Vaughn, Gilbert, AZ 85233

TUCSON, Arizona — On Nov. 2, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will officially mark the opening of the University of Arizona College of Nursing’s new fourth floor facilities in Gilbert, Arizona.

Town of Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson will oversee the event as the Master of Ceremony. Remarks from University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins, MD, University of Arizona Health Sciences Senior Vice President Michael D. Dake, MD, Kathleen Insel, PhD, Interim Dean of the UArizona College of Nursing, and Rep. Andy Biggs will precede the ceremony.

Since 2019, the college’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing integrative health (BSN-IH) pathway has occupied the entire third floor of the University Building in downtown Gilbert. The expansion, approved by the Town of Gilbert in December 2021, will accommodate the College of Nursing’s Master of Science in Nursing – Entry to the Profession (MEPN) program.

The MEPN program, which is moving to Gilbert from the Phoenix Bioscience Core, will occupy an entire floor, giving the college new classroom space overlooking the downtown Heritage District. This space will house two accelerated nursing programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“We are thrilled the MEPN program has the opportunity to join the Gilbert campus and our University of Arizona BSN-IH students and colleagues,” said Kelley Miller Wilson, DNP, MSN, CMSRN, director of the MEPN program. “The classroom and experiential learning capabilities are exceptional and provide students with an outstanding, well-rounded nursing education.”

The University Building is equipped with an eight-bed skills lab and a nursing simulation suite designed to replicate a hospital patient-care setting, which was a major factor in the College of Nursing’s decision to expand in Gilbert. The College of Nursing has invested more than $300,000 to update the third floor of the University Building with speaker systems, technical infrastructure and state-of-the-art simulation equipment.

The MEPN program retrains students with university degrees in other fields to become nurses, while simultaneously earning a master’s degree with the goal of becoming registered nurses. The melding of the BSN-IH and MEPN programs in the same building will help educate and train new generations of Wildcat nurses who are desperately needed to fill an anticipated nursing shortage of almost 1 million nurses by 2030.