Nursing Education Center opens in Montgomery Hall
Mannequins are seen in beds in the Skills Lab in the Nursing Education Center inside Montgomery Hall. The updated facility increased the num- ber of beds for students to practice their skills.
October 25, 2021
A $6.1 million grant from Memorial Health Systems of Springfield, the new Nursing Education Center in Montgomery Hall has opened on the main campus of Lincoln Land Community College.
The Nursing Education Center provides many upgrades to the facilities for the program. For example, the center has an improved skills lab with high-fidelity mannequins.
The skills lab is a large room that looks like a sizable, multi-bed hospital room. If you didn’t know where you were, you would think you were actually in a hospital, except for the tables and chairs along with a viewing screen for instruction.
Assistant Dean of Nursing Sonja Spencer said the new skills lab has 10 beds compared to the previous four beds and has the classroom in the lab.
It “allows students to get up from their lecture and go straight into hands-on training on whatever it was they were just learning about,” Spencer said.
As a result, the Skills Lab has doubled the number of students in the lab at any given time. New and current students in the program will have access to state-of-the-art equipment and the latest technologies.
The mannequins in the skills lab and the labor and delivery lab “can do almost everything but walk,” said Spencer. “They can cry, run a temperature and even show variations in blood pressure readings.”
The center’s classrooms are also more significant in size, holding up to 90 students. This increase in capacity allows for increased enrollment into the program, which currently has 96 to 120 students enrolled. In addition, this fall, the program opened evening classes allowing for 30 more students in the program.
Parts of the simulation labs are small rooms with computers behind one-way mirrors. This setup allows an instructor to change and alter the patients’ conditions while the student is on the other side perceiving and caring for the patient’s needs. As a result, the student can learn and practice skills without the anxiety of making mistakes in the real world.
The LLCC Nursing Program has a lot to offer health care students, with programs for achieving an ADN, LPN to ADN transition, and CNA. In addition, they offer programs in occupational therapy, Radiography, Respiratory Care, and Surgical Technology.
At the opening of the new Nursing Education Center, Lincoln Land Community College President Dr. Charlotte Warren said, “This facility marks a new era as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LLCC nursing program, which has produced nearly 4,000 nursing graduates.”
Continuing the tradition of excellence in healthcare education with progress in state-of-the-art facilities and advanced high-fidelity equipment and technology ensures this new era will be one with great promise and potential for students.