ACC registered nursing students attend the Aug. 27 opening of the new Clinical Education Center.

Picture an intensive care unit at a hospital: A room lined with electronic beds and only thin pastel curtains separating one “room” from the next.

This is Gabriela Juarez’s new classroom.

“It’s a great opportunity to be able to work in a real hospital setting and get hands-on experience,” the first-year registered nursing student says.

One hundred and sixty first-year RN students recently enrolled in Austin Community College’s Associate Degree Nursing Program. ACC increased enrollment capacity in the program by 50 additional students each fall and spring, and now has a total of 465 students in the program.

The expansion follows the opening of Seton Family of Hospitals’ new Clinical Education Center (CEC) in downtown Austin, which provides the community with additional much-needed medical education facilities.

“Every facility that we have here is an exact replica of what we are going to be working in, so it’s great to have that experience,” says Juarez.

“This facility is almost incomparable. I know of few others in the U.S. that are similar to this, so we are very lucky to have this,” says Dr. Kathy Lauchner, who has taught nursing students at ACC for 20 years.

The unique learning environment is what attracted veterinary nurse Vivian Curtis to return to college to become a registered nurse.

“This is the first learning environment I’ve ever been in that has been truly supportive,” she says.

“The ACC instructors have been wonderful. They are very friendly and approachable and caring about you, and that makes you friendly, approachable and caring, which as a nurse you must be,” says Curtis.

The Associate Degree Nursing Program plans even more growth in the near future when the college builds an eighth campus in Round Rock.