Sam Houston State University The Woodlands opened a nursing wing in January.[/caption]

The Sam Houston State University Woodlands Center will open Phase 1 of its Nursing Skills program this month. The program provides an avenue for nursing students to earn their registered nurse or Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees.

Judy Upshaw, director of nursing labs at SHSU The Woodlands, said the lab, which is located on the fourth floor of the facility, features hospital beds and operational mannequins that help train SHSU nursing students on how to care for patients.

Upshaw said the mannequins are fully operational and digitally controlled. They can simulate things such as a heart beat, blood pressure, pregnancy and birth.

"It's as real as we want to make it," Upshaw said. "Anything you can do in a real hospital with a real patient, they can do. It's a safe atmosphere, where [students] can repeat the scenario."

Janet Mullings, director of the SHSU Woodlands Center, said the program will eventually consist of 80 nursing students in four cohorts of 20 students each. She said that by next spring, the college aims to offer a bachelor's degree in public health and in health care administration.

Meanwhile, The Woodlands Center will continue its research symposium, which it launched last year. Mulling said the symposium features the research efforts of SHSU The Woodland Center graduate and undergraduate students. The students present their original research to members of the public, faculty and peers.

Also continuing this year is SHSU The Woodlands Center's guest speaker series. The series began last year with a presentation by a federal prosecutor discussing federal theft, Mullings said. One of this year's

presentations, with one coming in the spring and one in the fall, will focus on drones, including those used by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

"We try to find topics that have a broad appeal to the community," Mulling said.