Welcome to the Elsie Franz-Finley Simulated Health Center!
Home to Oregon's first fully accredited, state-of-the-art simulated health center
Our Simulated Health Center is designed to mirror real-world clinical environments, our acute care unit and ambulatory care center prepare both undergraduate and graduate nursing students to enter practice with strong clinical judgement, confidence, and competence in a wide variety of skills.
The Elsie Franz-Finley Simulated Health Center stands apart for its authentic design, immersive technology, and highly personalized learning model. From hospital-grade equipment to lifelike patient encounters with trained actors, the environment closely replicates the complexity of modern healthcare settings. Small class sizes and low student-to-faculty ratios ensure individualized coaching, reflective practice, and frequent hands-on training, allowing every learner to engage in a meaningful way.
Through realistic simulation experiences that span inpatient, outpatient, community, and home settings, students strengthen their clinical decision-making, teamwork, and communication abilities, preparing them to graduate as confident leaders and collaborative members of the healthcare team.
Our Mission and Vision
The University of Portland Elsie Franz-Finley Simulated Health Center prepares and inspires healthcare leaders through high-fidelity, immersive experiences to support the development of clinical judgment, ethical reflection, and leadership formation, while providing holistic care and valuing human dignity.
The University of Portland Elsie Franz-Finley Simulated Health Center is committed to a future where students, faculty, and staff collectively advance the science of simulation-based learning and embrace a lifelong dedication to uphold the value of experiential learning grounded in reflective practice.
Highlights
- Fully accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare in Teaching/Education
- Highly qualified simulation team that includes faculty, staff, and actors
- Small-group, faculty-guided instruction that maximizes individual feedback and clinical skill development
- Immersive scenarios featuring trained actors (Standardized Patients) who portray complex physical, emotional, and cultural patient needs
- Enhanced simulation technologies that allow actors and manikins to display dynamic symptoms, vital sign changes, and evolving clinical conditions in real time
- Expertly crafted patient cases integrating clinical reasoning, communication, teamwork, and ethical decision-making
- High-quality video capture and review to support structured debriefing and reflective learning
- Faculty-led debrief sessions that strengthen clinical judgment, teamwork, and self-awareness
- Safe, supportive environment where students can practice, make mistakes, and build confidence before caring for real patients
- Course-driven on-campus clinical experiences directly aligned with program outcomes to ensure readiness for practice
Virtual Tour
- Skills laboratory that includes 17 acute care patient beds as well as high fidelity manikins and task trainers
- A team of trained actors (Standardized Patients) for immersive patient scenarios
- Six acute care simulation suites designed to replicate hospital rooms
- Advanced high-fidelity medical manikins with realistic physiological responses
- Ambulatory Care Center
- Six primary care exam rooms
- Telehealth provider suite
- Studio-style simulated apartment for home health and community-based care training
- Integrated audiovisual simulation capture system for recording and playback
- Wearable and augmented technology that produces realistic heart, lung, and other clinical findings on live actors
