Architecture + Health Care = Career Opportunities

University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture students now have the opportunity to focus on health care design in collaboration with UDM’s College of Health Professions. This academic concentration allows Architecture students to understand current health care issues and their impact on the design of health care facilities. Currently, senior Architecture students can take four graduate Health Services Administration courses and focus part of their senior project on a health care design issue.

For senior Architecture student Rebecca Allen, the health care design concentration was a natural interest, given her own years as a health care patient. Afflicted with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Allen combines her patient perspective with her design ability to help determine appropriate health care design.

Through a design competition during her third year of study, Allen and her team addressed the design of a cancer center in Chicago, and the team won first prize in this regional competition. As a result of the competition, she acquired a summer internship with RTKL Associates Inc. in Chicago and worked on redesigning a hospital expansion/renovation project that included an inpatient/outpatient rehabilitation facility, emergency room, ultrasound and OR facilities.

According to Allen, the firm “took advantage of my personal experience. They respected my opinion and gave me the opportunity to be part of all aspects of the project.”

During her second internship with the firm, she was able to see the project through to completion, including the interior design architecture work.

This term, Allen is taking the interdisciplinary course, “Health Care Policy and Issues,” as part of her concentration. “It’s interesting to learn about the whole health care structure,” she says.

Allen plans to work for a health care design firm after she graduates. “Health care design is booming now. There are a lot of job opportunities,” she adds.

Because only a small number of Architecture schools prepare architects for this type of design work, UDM plans to develop an undergraduate certificate in health care design to combine the technical and aesthetic expertise of the Architecture program with the facility management and health care understanding of the Health Professions program. A Health Care Advisory committee has been formed with representatives of Albert Kahn Associates, Harley Ellis Devereaux, Smith Group Chicago, VOA Chicago, Trinity Health and Henry Ford Health System. They are presently assisting in the development of three health care concentration courses in the content areas of Health Care Environments, Building Codes and Programming.

Architecture firms Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. and Harley Ellis Devereaux are funding this course development. 

Online BSN Completion program

McAuley School of Nursing now offers an online BSN Completion program for any registered nurses who have completed diploma or associate degree programs. The cohort model is a 28-month, part-time program. Students prepare for class sessions on their own and then “meet” online. Assignments are turned in online as well. The program’s flexibility allows working individuals the opportunity to complete their bachelor’s degree in a timely manner. A 25 percent vendor discount is available for those eligible. For more information, please contact Jenny Duncil at dunciljl@udmercy.edu or 313-993-2455 or visit the web site at http://healthprofessions.udmercy.edu.