Hinds Community College has dedicated a new $64 million, 160,000-square-foot Health Sciences Complex on its Rankin Campus in Pearl to expand training opportunities for future nurses and other health care professionals.
The college held a dedication ceremony Wednesday, celebrating the completion of the three-story complex, which opened in August for the fall semester.
The facility brings Hinds’ nursing and allied health programs together under one roof and includes modern classrooms, specialized laboratories, high-fidelity simulation labs, and mock hospital rooms designed to give students hands-on experience in realistic health care settings.
“This is not just a teaching facility. This is an economic engine,” Hinds President Dr. Stephen Vacik said. “Central Mississippi and Rankin County rely on health care to help drive this economy, and we want to be the ones who put the professionals to work in those facilities.”
The complex is expected to train more than 650 people annually for health care-related careers, according to U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, who attended Hinds’ Rankin Campus in the mid-1980s and spoke at the dedication ceremony.
“May God use the graduates of this program to provide better health care opportunities for all Mississippians,” Guest said.
Hinds trains students for various health care careers, including registered nursing, dental assisting, paramedicine, emergency medical services, health care assisting, and physical therapist assisting.
The new facility is designed around simulation-based instruction and collaborative learning, allowing students to practice skills and work through realistic patient scenarios before encountering similar situations with actual patients.
Students can also collaborate with those in other health care disciplines, solve problems, make decisions, communicate as members of a health care team, and build confidence in a controlled environment, said Katharine Elliott, Hinds’ dean of health sciences.
“Today, we celebrate a beautiful new building but, more importantly, we celebrate what will happen inside this building for generations to come,” Elliott said. “What we have created here will have an impact far beyond this campus.”
Elliott said health care employers value Hinds graduates because they enter the workforce with skills and knowledge needed in today’s clinical environment.
“As impressive as the technology is in this building, technology is not what makes excellent health care professionals. Health care is ultimately about people,” Elliott said.
The complex is also expected to benefit the region’s economic development efforts by creating a pipeline of trained health care workers for employers.
“We now have a direct pipeline of talent going to those companies within our sector,” said Garrett Wright, president and CEO of the Rankin First Economic Development Authority. “When we talk with health care companies, the answer is now a resounding, ‘yes.’ We can supply that workforce right here from Rankin County.”
State Senate President Pro Tempore Dean Kirby also attended the dedication and said the facility will benefit both students and the broader community.
“We’re not only helping students get an education, but we’re making lives better every day those students come into this building,” Kirby said.
The complex marks a significant change from the facilities used by previous generations of Hinds health sciences students.
Beverly Brown of Clinton, who graduated from Hinds’ medical laboratory program in 1984, toured the new facility and reflected on the changes in health sciences education.
“I was excited to see the remarkable progress that Hinds Community College has made since I graduated,” she said. “This program will definitely help lead the way for quality health care in the entire state of Mississippi and beyond.”
Hinds Community College has five campuses in central Mississippi and offers academic programs designed for university transfer as well as career and technical programs focused on workforce preparation.