President Hanbury made a huge announcement to the NSU community last Monday: if everything goes as planned, our main campus will become home to a 100-bed hospital, which will serve as a teaching and research facility for the NSU community.
Pre-med, physician assistant, nursing and medical students all over campus are probably excited at the prospect of having a facility on campus in which they can volunteer, shadow doctors and conduct research with NSU faculty. But the potential addition of the hospital shouldn’t be a cause for celebration among only health science students. I think students in every program of study should put their full support behind the proposal, and here’s why.
First, NSU’s reputation will soar. The presence of a teaching hospital has the potential to become NSU’s biggest asset in drawing students from all over the world to South Florida. There is nothing more valuable to a student’s education that hands-on experience, and a hospital will give health science students that important opportunity. Word of this incredible addition to NSU’s academics will spread and soon, students from all areas of study will flock to our school, simply because we will be known for offering a unique educational experience. Eventually, our diplomas bearing NSU’s name will mean more to the world.
Secondly, donors will see more reason to support NSU. The university has many undergraduate and graduate schools throughout Florida, numerous health clinics, a huge public library and several recreational facilities. Endless free public events are held on our campus and the community definitely benefits from many of the activities organized by our students. In short, NSU has a lot going on, and if a hospital is added to this already impressive list, philanthropists with deep pockets and an interest in helping universities will be inclined to donate to NSU, because both students and the larger community will feel the benefit of their dollars.
An increase in health care is always good. I’ve never heard anyone complain about too many health care options. South Florida is a highly active region of the state, with many athletes, outdoorsmen, adventurers and tourists; all of these people will be grateful that an extra hospital was built in the middle of Davie. NSU’s facility could help alleviate the long waits at other hospitals in the area, and would be a mere walking distance away for NSU’s residential students.
Finally, a hospital will help complete our campus. President Hanbury’s 2020 Vision is a brilliant one; he aspires to have NSU recognized as an accredited non-profit, pre-medical institution in seven years. Part of that vision will come to fruition if the HCA hospital is approved, because it seems that one thing holding our university back from stardom is the lack of a large medical, research facility. Esteemed schools like Harvard, Columbia, Chapel Hill and Duke all have their own hospitals in which students can apply their theoretical knowledge to real life, and people the world over are impressed by this. If we want to be ranked among these high-tiered institutions, we have to create a more complete image, and the HCA hospital would be a crucial step.
President Hanbury has asked the NSU community to support the proposal by spreading the word, and it is imperative that we continue do so. I hear students, faculty and the community speaking excitedly about the news, which shows that, even though the proposal hasn’t even been approved yet, the hospital’s positive impact on our university has already been felt.
