Suffern, NY – Rockland Community College has opened an expanded nursing simulation laboratory designed to give students more opportunities to practice clinical skills and respond to medical emergencies before working directly with patients. The college marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The facility opened for the Fall 2026 semester and is located on the second floor of RCC’s Technology Building.
The new laboratory covers 5,234 square feet and is five times larger than the college’s previous nursing simulation area. It includes a simulation wing designed to reproduce conditions students may encounter in hospitals and other health care settings.Students can use high-fidelity patient simulators that reproduce medical conditions and physiological responses, including seizures, childbirth and other emergencies. The controlled environment allows students to practice clinical decision-making, patient assessment, communication and other nursing skills without involving actual patients.
The equipment includes a maternal simulator known as “MamaAnne,” which is designed to recreate serious obstetric emergencies. The simulator allows students and health care teams to practice identifying and responding to complications that can occur during pregnancy and childbirth. The facility also includes virtual reality technology for simulated clinical training and an interactive three-dimensional anatomy table that allows students to examine human anatomy digitally.
More than 515 students are currently enrolled in RCC’s nursing program. The larger facility allows instructors to conduct multiple simulation exercises in succession, providing students with repeated opportunities to practice skills and respond to different clinical situations. The project received $3 million in federal funding through the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. News 12 Hudson Valley reported that the project also received an additional $1 million in state grant funding.
Construction contracts for the nursing simulation lab were approved by the RCC Board of Trustees earlier this year. College records show contracts were approved for electrical, mechanical, plumbing and general construction work associated with the project.
The new facility also expands the technology available to students as they prepare for licensing examinations and careers in hospitals, clinics and other health care settings. Simulation training is intended to allow students to make clinical decisions and practice responding to complicated situations in a setting where instructors can observe their performance and provide feedback.
According to RCC, students in its nursing program have achieved a 94 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX, during the past five years. The NCLEX is the national licensing examination used by state nursing boards to determine whether nursing graduates meet requirements for entry-level practice.
The college also reports that NursingProcess.org, an independent nursing education website, ranked RCC’s associate degree nursing program No. 1 among 153 New York programs included in its 2025 evaluation.The expanded simulation laboratory is intended to increase the amount of hands-on clinical training available to RCC nursing students while allowing them to practice communication, clinical judgment and emergency response in a controlled setting.
Students are currently using the facility as part of the Fall 2026 semester.