Nursing majors love it for two primary reasons: the labs and simulation rooms are state-of-the art, and the building is exclusively for them. When we talk about facilities for “hands-on” learning, Mattson is the perfect specimen. And it works: the first-attempt pass rate of nursing boards for Gustavus grads averages 90 percent.
Gustavus has offered a nursing baccalaureate since 1953. Mattson has been a campus building since 2005. It’s named for Rev. Dr. Peter A. Mattson, an alum who became president of Gustavus in 1904 only 12 years after graduating from it. Mattson houses three simulation suites equipped with high-tech manikins (yes, that is the correct spelling). These manikins projectile vomit, give birth, and die of heart attacks, not necessarily in that order.