DNP and Architecture Students Collaborate to Design Health Care Facilities in India

Cross-disciplinary project bridges clinical expertise with community design

When Dr. Fernando Lima, assistant professor of architecture and director of digital fabrication at O'More College of Architecture & Design, approached Dr. Kathryn Dambrino, program chair of graduate nursing, about collaborating on a health care facility design project in India, she immediately saw an opportunity for innovation in nursing education. 

The result? A groundbreaking partnership between doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students and undergraduate architecture students that is reshaping how future health care facilities might be designed — all while demonstrating Belmont's commitment to interdisciplinary education. 

"We've learned that nursing and architecture are actually a match made in heaven," said Dambrino. "Often when health care structures and systems are built, nurses aren't invited to those conversations. But nurses, being the backbone of the health care system and the largest workforce within it, are truly the ones who have to figure out workflow within those designs." 

The semester-long project focused on developing housing and health care facility designs for a low-income area in Ahmedabad, India. DNP students served as health care consultants to undergraduate architecture students, offering expertise that ranged from clinical workflows to community health considerations. 

“Bringing together nursing and architecture students is at the heart of what I believe defines Belmont's signature: innovation, creativity and character, all woven together through interdisciplinary collaboration to create a truly unique student experience,” said Lima. “My students not only collaborated with nursing students but also received valuable feedback from Belmont nursing faculty and expert health care design professionals from the Nashville community. Our goal is to equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate and succeed in the complex challenges of the contemporary world.” 

Rachel Marquart, a Belmont DNP student and nursing instructor who participated as a consultant, found that her floor nursing experience brought valuable, practical insights to the design process. 

"They'd covered a lot of bases in the facility, but there were some things they hadn't considered not having a medical background," Marquart said. "Like supply rooms — we need nursing supply rooms on both sides — or a nursing break room. They were really receptive to my feedback." 

The collaboration went beyond just health care facility design. DNP students helped architecture students understand how the entire community design impacts health outcomes, from water system placement to transportation access. In turn, architecture students helped the DNP students understand how thoughtful design decisions impact health care accessibility and patient outcomes in resource-limited and population-dense settings. These decisions included climate-responsive design, locally sourced materials, energy efficiency, modular scalability, and community-centered planning. 

"Our students were seeing the entire design as a system," Dambrino explained. "Instead of just focusing on one tiny part, they really were able to speak to how the whole system might influence the health outcomes of that population." 

The project exemplifies Belmont's innovative approach to nursing education, preparing DNP students to be leaders who can work effectively in interdisciplinary teams and address complex health care challenges in new ways. 

"We're trying to teach these students that we can't do things the way they've always been done," Dambrino said. "This is a perfect example of how to think differently about interdisciplinary teams. When you put them on a team together and they can learn to speak a shared language, you end up with higher impact and a greater ability to address some of these really complex challenges we have in health care today." 

The success of the collaboration has led to plans for future partnerships between the programs. The architecture program plans to continue tackling similar health care focused projects, with potential opportunities for DNP leadership and innovation students to participate as part of their required practice experience hours. 

For Marquart, the project highlighted the potential for innovative partnerships to transform health care design.  

"The fact that they considered not just the logistics of the landscape, but how to build something that supports the community — I thought that was amazing," she said. 

This innovative partnership between Belmont's nursing and architecture programs demonstrates the University's commitment to breaking down traditional academic silos. By bringing together future health care providers and designers, Belmont is preparing graduates who can think innovatively, work across disciplines and create solutions that improve both health care delivery and community wellbeing. 

“Nashville is strategically positioned within the national health care design landscape, offering immense opportunities for collaboration,” said Lima. “With that in mind, I see great potential for future partnerships not only between the architecture and nursing programs but also across other Belmont programs. We are committed to expanding our involvement in this space — this is just the beginning.”