{"id":16755,"date":"2025-08-26T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-opens-new-nursing-hall\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:01:16","slug":"fort-lewis-college-opens-new-nursing-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-opens-new-nursing-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College opens new nursing hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink is shown how one of the mannequins in Fort Lewis College\u2019s new nursing hall works. Zink said when she started her career in nursing 55 years ago, she and her fellow students practiced on real people \u2013 including patients and each other. The new mannequins will give students more leeway to make mistakes and learn from them, better preparing them for working with actual people. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fort Lewis College unveiled its new 5,000-square-foot nursing hall Sunday and welcomed its first cohort of nursing students.<\/p>\n

In partnership with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, FLC\u2019s new nursing hall will allow students to receive in-depth hands-on instruction from world-class medical experts. The hall was paid for through a combination of state and federal funding and philanthropic donations from private sponsors.<\/p>\n

According to CU Associate Dean of Students Amy Barton, who was instrumental in kick-starting the FLC nursing program, the new facility will equip students from rural backgrounds with the knowledge necessary to better serve their communities.<\/p>\n

\"Visitors
Visitors step into the newly completed Fort Lewis College Nursing Hall. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhat this allows us to do is really bring world class baccalaureate nursing education to a very rural community,\u201d Barton said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barton said rural communities across the country are experiencing a nursing shortage. In Colorado, many of the state\u2019s rural counties have health provider shortages, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment<\/a>. Because of its proximity to rural and Indigenous communities, FLC is the perfect place for a nursing program, because it allows graduates from the program to return to their communities with high-quality knowledge, Barton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this program does is it really helps us create a pipeline for the rural nursing workforce,\u201d Barton said. \u201cWhat it does is it\u2019s really a proven strategy for both recruitment and retention of health care providers in a more remote area. We want them to return to their communities, to do more of a community-based kind of practice and understand the important nuances of community-based care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink stands in the Karen Zink Education Center, a hyperrealistic hospital simulation classroom named in her honor. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Karen Zink, who has been registered as a nurse for 55 years, donated $1 million with her husband to the program. Zink earned her nursing diploma at Mercy Hospital\u2019s School of Nursing, then went on to Lorretto Heights College and CU to receive a master\u2019s and a women\u2019s health practitioner certificate. Now, she said, she can give back to her community by empowering more future nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have a love affair with Fort Lewis College, with the University of Colorado, with the faculty there, with students here,\u201d Zink said. \u201cIt has been such joy to watch the students, and I\u2019ve gotten a fair amount of time with them, and to see people that would not have had this opportunity unless they had Fort Lewis College to do those science classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Zink\u2019s gift, the hall received funding from philanthropic and federal investments, including $1.3 million from U.S. Department of Education that was championed by Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper, according to FLC Media Relations Strategist Nardy Bickel. Other donors to the nursing hall included the Colorado Health Foundation, the Anschutz Foundation, Rocky Mountain Health Foundation, Roy & Gloria Dinsdale Foundation, Animas Surgical Hospital, Bank of Colorado and numerous individual donors.<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Colorado Associate Dean of Students Amy Barton leads Fort Lewis College\u2019s first nursing cohort in a nursing pledge before bestowing them with their first nursing pins. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The nursing hall offers a plethora of high-tech facilities to provide students with an in-depth understanding of their field. The Bank of Colorado Home Suite is a model apartment that will be used for scenarios simulating when nurses must travel to a patient\u2019s home to provide care.<\/p>\n

The Animas Surgical Hospital Ambulatory Care will provide simulated telehealth, simulations. Finally, the Karen Zink Education Center simulates a hospital setting in which nursing students can interact with hyperrealistic mannequins that have a pulse, can make sound, blink, vomit, urinate, bleed and move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will come out as leaders in their field,\u201d Zink said. \u201cHaving these mannequins, they can practice before they\u2019re with a real patient. And then they have more confidence when they\u2019re in the patient care setting. It\u2019s just so marvelous and so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Jim, a third-year nursing student at Fort Lewis College, said he is excited for the new nursing hall and is excited to pursue a career in nursing. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ryan Jim, a third-year student, now a member of the school\u2019s first nursing cohort, said he is excited about the new program and the new facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the road ahead is going to be challenging, but it\u2019ll be worth it,\u201d Jim said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim said over the past three years, he and his fellow students had completed all of the anatomy, biology and chemistry prerequisite classes for the program, but not having a physical space to practice hands-on nursing skills was challenging. Now that they can study hands-on in the nursing hall, Jim expects he will be better equipped to head into the real world post-graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, it\u2019s been good, but it\u2019s kind of in the entry realm of that,\u201d Jim said. \u201cBeing a servant to your community, to your people, providing them services that they expect to be good. They\u2019re putting your lives in your hands. So yeah, it\u2019s pretty important to give that good-quality service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Jim displays his nursing pin. (Scout Edmondosn\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jim, who grew up in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation, said his grandparents and mother inspired him to go into nursing. He said he wants to take the skills he learns at school and bring them back to his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, probably going to the health care course working at my local hospital,\u201d Jim said. \u201cFrom there, I will pursue my master\u2019s in nursing, become a nurse practitioner possibly at University of Colorado, and in the foreseeable future, maybe a physician as well a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College faculty explain the college\u2019s new hyperrealistic mannequins to visitors. The mannequins can move, make sound, blink, vomit, urinate and bleed. They also have a mannequin that can simulate a live human birth. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Students
Students can practice inserting IVs and catheters on realistic human models. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program expected to benefit rural communities throughout Four Corners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[132,28,61],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-headlines","tag-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20373,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions\/20373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16755"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}