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