ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Leaders with UNM celebrated the opening of its College of Nursing and Public Health Excellence Building Friday. 

The 93,000 square foot building has classrooms, offices, community hubs, and research labs.

“With this new facility opening up and nurses coming out, healthcare workers coming out, it’s great. It’s a hope for everybody to look forward to,” said Yolanda Ulmer, CEO of District 1199 NM. 

The union represents our state’s hospital and health care employees.

“The nurses are tired from the hospitals that we represent, the nurses are very tired trying to keep everything together and keep it going,” said Ulmer.  

That’s because our state is short about 6,000 nurses, meaning full work loads for those taking care of our community. 

“Are they going to be working alone? Are they going to have seven, eight, nine patients to one nurse?” said Ulmer. 

But UNM leaders say the state-of-the-art building will help with that by attracting health care workers, and providing resources to train more students in nursing and public health. 

“It gives us the educational facilities to be able to expand the class sizes and creates new research space for the health professionals in the college of nursing, and college of population health,” said Dr. Mike Richards with the UNM Health Sciences Center. 

General obligation bonds, university money and donors paid for the $43 million building.