Rhodes State College will open in August its downtown Lima campus, the Borra Center for Health Science Education & Innovation, marking the end of a years-long project that is the cornerstone of downtown Lima’s revitalization effort.
The Borra Center will feature innovative technologies for health care students: a collaborative video wall; 3-D printers that can make adaptive medical devices; touch-screen cadavers that can zoom from the skin down to the bone; patient simulation rooms and an ambulance simulator where students can practice inserting intravenous fluids while on the road; and even mannequins that can go into cardiac arrest.
The 50,000 square-foot campus is intended to train students and incumbent health care professionals, focusing on nursing, respiratory care, emergency medical services, physical therapist assistants and occupational therapy assistants.
“We’re combining state-of-the art technology and the new paradigm for teaching our health care students,” said Dr. Angela Heaton, dean of health sciences and public services at Rhodes State, who spoke to the Lima Rotary Club on Monday.
Rhodes State is also preparing a new agricultural technology program that would offer certificates in agribusiness, agronomy, prescription mapping and robotics and artificial intelligence.
Students will have access to aerial drones, prescription mapping software, soil sampling equipment and other technologies to map the topography of a farm or learn to identify crop diseases, among other emerging technological skills.
The college’s 10-county region is home to more than 10,000 farms, said Dr. James Uphause, a former agricultural product advisor who will oversee the ag-tech program.
The certificates have already been approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Learning, while an associate’s degree in agricultural technology is pending approval of the Higher Learning Commission.
