LA CROSSE, Wis.--  Viterbo University is celebrating the opening of its new School of Nursing building.  The new 15 million dollar facility is double the size of the old nursing school.

It includes state-of-the art equipment set up in exam rooms that students would find at a real hospital.  Along with labs, there is more classroom space and even a healing garden for students to relax.

The university hopes the new building will help grow its program at an important time.  "There will be a really looming nursing shortage in the next few years, we need to be able to educate more nurses and we need to have them really well prepared for the complex health care system that they'll be working in," says the Dean of the School of Nursing Silvana Richardson.

Nursing students will get their first look at the new facility during an open house this Sunday.