JEFFERSON CITY — Lincoln University nursing student Ryleigh Long of Belle had no time to be distracted by the high-tech mannequin’s blink as she worked through a simulation at the school’s new nursing facility within the Health and Security Sciences Institute in Jefferson City, responding as the patient’s blood pressure dropped and heart rate climbed.

For Long and fellow Osage County students Cody Berhorst of Westphalia, Skyla Schroeder of Meta and Allison Schwartze of Koeltztown, the expanded facilities are providing a much different environment as they work toward Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees.

Lincoln University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Health and Security Sciences Institute on Aug. 4. The $45.5 million facility aims to enhance nursing education and public safety training opportunities for students in Missouri and the Midwest.

The local connection extends beyond the students. Assistant Professor Ellen Kliethermes, a lifelong Loose Creek resident, has been at Lincoln since 2019, first as an academic coach and since 2020 as a faculty member teaching primarily senior-level nursing students. She teaches Medical-Surgical II, including Schwartze’s class, and also works with students during clinicals.

It was a natural transition for someone who has spent 42 years in nursing.

Kliethermes graduated from the former Burge School of Nursing in Springfield, completing a three-year, hospital-based diploma program that no longer exists.

Her experience in a variety of areas has served her well when students have questions about operating room nursing, emergency care or other specialties. Cardiology remains her favorite.

Kliethermes traces her interest in nursing back to grade school, when a nurse from Loose Creek visited her school and talked about the profession. She remembers thinking how great it would be to do the kinds of things he described to help people.

Her aunt, who worked as a nurse in Kansas City, was another influence.

“I always loved listening to her stories when I was growing up,” Kliethermes said.

Now she is helping prepare another generation of nurses, including several from her own home county.

The four students reached Lincoln and nursing by different routes.

Long is in her third semester of the nursing program and expects to graduate in December 2027. She always expected to enter the medical field and originally talked about becoming a doctor before nursing became her starting point. Her grandmother was an LPN for years at a nursing home, and Long is the first of her siblings to pursue a bachelor’s degree. She entered Lincoln after earning an associate degree at East Central College.

“At first, I came in knowing nobody, so it was kind of a curve to make friends, learn the new class,” Long said. “But knowing that we were going to be together for the next two and a half years, pretty much, we’ve all gotten to know each other.”

Berhorst entered Lincoln after graduating from Fatima and completing prerequisite work before beginning the nursing sequence. Dual-credit courses gave him a head start.

“I didn’t really decide until towards the end of my senior year,” he said. “I needed a plan, you know. I always liked biology, but I didn’t want to be sitting in an office somewhere.”

He took a job at Capital Region and discovered he liked hospital work.

Schroeder is in her second semester of nursing school and went directly to Lincoln, using dual credits to complete some prerequisites before applying to the program. Her interest in health care has deep roots: both parents are retired EMTs, and an aunt is a nurse.

“I’ve been around the medical field my entire life,” Schroeder said.

By high school, she was considering nursing because she wanted a career that allowed her to care for people.

Schwartze is the most advanced of the four, beginning her senior year and fourth of five semesters in the nursing program. She started at Lincoln and played softball while completing general education requirements. Once she entered the nursing program, doing both became too much, and nursing won.

“I really love to help people and just see people improve over time,” Schwartze said. “You make a difference every single day. At clinicals, I feel like I have made a difference every single day.”

An aunt who formerly worked as a labor nurse gave Schwartze another family connection to the profession, though she said her aunt did not drive the decision. Schwartze said she had long expected to enter health care and was attracted to nursing partly because of the range of directions the degree can take her.

About 90 nursing students are enrolled at Lincoln’s Jefferson City campus. Berhorst and Long are part of a cohort that began with 30 students, the maximum Lincoln is currently permitted to admit in a cohort under Missouri State Board of Nursing regulations. Twenty-one remain in their group.

Kliethermes said the university hopes the additional space eventually will allow Lincoln to seek approval to admit more students.

For those already enrolled, the benefits of the expansion are immediate.

While construction was underway, the nursing program operated from temporary quarters on Leslie Boulevard. Students described the space as cramped, particularly when practicing skills in groups.

Long said the difference is “night and day.” The new practice area has roughly a dozen beds available, compared with about five that students previously shared.

“We’re not sitting shoulder to shoulder,” she said.

Schroeder echoed the point, saying students previously were “sitting more right on top of each other.” The new building, she said, provides room to spread out for both studying and hands-on work.

The improvements extend beyond square footage.

Equipment in the simulation rooms functions much as it would in a medical setting, including suction and oxygen systems. The rooms themselves more closely resemble hospital settings, allowing students to practice in an environment designed to mimic what they will eventually encounter with actual patients.

“It makes it as real as possible,” Berhorst said.

Schroeder said the technology is helping prepare students for situations they may encounter in the field. During one recent simulation, the mannequin began having a seizure.

“It was physically shaking and everything, so then you had to react to that,” she said.

Schwartze has trained in both the temporary and new facilities and pointed to details that make the new simulation environment more authentic. The new room includes a bathroom and a working phone that can be used during a scenario instead of students stepping into a hallway and pretending to call a physician.

“It literally looks like a real live hospital room,” Schwartze said. “The new sim lab is so much better.”

That realism becomes more significant as students move from simulations into clinical work with actual patients.

Schwartze is currently taking Medical-Surgical II with Kliethermes and completing clinical work at St. Mary’s in a step-down unit for patients who remain seriously ill but do not require intensive care. She said she was nervous when she first began clinicals, particularly when performing a new skill on a real patient, but repetition and close supervision from instructors and nurses steadily built confidence.

“If we get the chance to practice a new skill we’ve learned, like an IV or putting in a Foley or an NG tube, you’re going to be a little nervous,” she said. “It’s your first time doing it on a real patient.”

After starting IVs several times, for example, Schwartze said the nervousness has largely disappeared.

“I think that’s a big thing too,” she said. “Getting to do the skills in clinical really builds your confidence.”

The connection between training and reality became particularly clear during a recent clinical when Schwartze and several classmates encountered a code situation for the first time.

She said the environment was controlled, and while the experience was serious, she did not feel as overwhelmed as she might have earlier in her education.

“The more realistic we can make it in school, we are so much more prepared for whenever things like this actually happen,” Schwartze said.

That is precisely what students said the new simulation environment provides.

Long noted that the previous setup could make an already stressful exercise more difficult because students working in pairs had so little room to maneuver.

“This is a much less stress-inducing environment,” Berhorst said.

The new building also gives nursing students something they previously had little of: places to study, collaborate or simply take a break.

“We had nothing in the past, basically, for them to just go and study or visit with each other,” Kliethermes said.

Schwartze singled out the abundance of windows and natural light, along with a balcony where students can eat or study outside when their schedules allow.

The nursing program shares the broader facility with other university programs, including cybersecurity and emergency operations. The building also includes space capable of serving as a command center during major emergencies.

Groundbreaking for the project was held Oct. 3, 2024, with then-Gov. Mike Parson and Jefferson City and Cole County officials attending.

Clinical education extends well beyond the simulation rooms.

Long said students move through fundamentals, medical-surgical nursing, obstetrics and pediatrics before reaching a final capstone semester, when students work one-on-one alongside nurses in a setting resembling an internship.

Students also rotate through hospitals, outpatient facilities and other settings. Long said the variety gives students a chance to explore specialties they might not otherwise encounter, while Berhorst recently had the opportunity to observe a surgery.

“You kind of just learn a lot of little stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily learn in the classroom, but you get in the real world,” Berhorst said.

Schwartze’s senior-level experience has exposed her to an even broader range, including St. Mary’s, operating room work, labor and delivery, behavioral health, emergency care and neonatal intensive care in Columbia.

The variety has made choosing a specialty more difficult rather than easier.

“I feel like I change my mind every week,” she said.

For now, Schwartze is interested in the type of step-down care she is experiencing at St. Mary’s because it exposes her to a variety of patients and conditions while providing a foundation that could transfer into areas such as intensive care, emergency nursing or oncology.

The other students are also keeping their options open. Long hopes to remain as close to home as possible. Berhorst plans to gain a year or two of hospital experience before considering travel nursing or another hospital, while Schroeder said she is leaning toward staying local but has also considered traveling for a few years before settling down.

Before becoming registered nurses, graduates also must pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).

For Berhorst, having Kliethermes at Lincoln provided another connection to home before he entered the program. She served as his adviser while he completed the steps necessary to apply.

“That made getting into the program stuff a little less stressful, just because it’s a small world — you know people,” he said.

Schwartze, now approaching the end of the program, offered another reason prospective students should consider Lincoln that has little to do with the new building.

The size of the university and its nursing program, she said, has allowed her to develop personal relationships with instructors who work closely with students rather than simply handing them material and expecting them to figure it out.

“You can tell every single one of them love their jobs,” Schwartze said. “They love teaching us. They love hearing about the things we get to do in clinicals.”

She said the environment is unlike anything she had experienced before.

“I have no regrets about my decision going to Lincoln,” Schwartze said.

For Kliethermes, those students are ultimately what the new classrooms, simulation equipment and millions of dollars invested in the facility are there to serve.

“It’s all about them,” she said.