DANVILLE — Tucked inside a historic brick home with modern additions, Lakeview College of Nursing in Danville has trained nurses since 1894.
And, soon, they will be welcoming students once again.
During a tour of the college, President Sheila Mingee and Madaline Winn, Coordinator of Marketing and Public Relations for the college, led the way, showing off newer additions and ones that have stood for years.
“We are the only nursing college in Vermilion County that offers a bachelor of science in nursing,” Winn said. “Which we like really pride ourselves on… to be able to offer that to the community.”
Mingee says the school used to be a diploma-based program when it began in 1894, and then in 1990 it became a bachelor of nursing program.
“All we do is nursing,” Mingee said. “We have two parts of the building… our older part of the building, which used to be a house… and then we have our new build… this classroom here, the classroom upstairs, and the student lounge were all built in 2007.”
And with nursing, the hands-on experience is necessary.
“This is one of our highlights,” Mingee said, showing off one of their labs. “This is our high fidelity simulation lab. We do have an adult simulator. We have a pediatric simulator. We have babies, and we also have a birthing mom.”
Each of the mannequins is also diverse to give students the real-life experience. Some even have colored hair or tattoos. There is a pregnant mother, children, babies, adults, basically anyone you might encounter in the field.
And Winn says there are real-life scenarios that play out for the students to learn as well.
“We do have a triage day,” Winn said. “They’ll have like an emergency, and they have to go to the helipad and… kind of like running around… It’s trying to like have them think on their feet… It’s a really fun day for them, but it’s also like really nice for them to use their skills that they’ve learned throughout the semester.”
Mingee added, “some of the scenarios… they’ve done hurricane, they’ve done a tornado, they’ve done protective shooter… some type of train wreck… recent activities that are going to involve them to be able to triage patients coming in and think who needs to be seen quicker.”
The college also offers a small food pantry area for students in need.
“We do have alumni that donate,” Mingee said. “A local dentist provided toothbrushes and toothpaste.”
She added, “any donations that could help the students as they’re trying to go through their nursing school,” are provided, like canned soups, diapers, formula, ramen, and even some uniforms are donated for prospective students.
“It’s important for us to provide those resources to our students,” Winn said. “We want them to be able to continue with their dream… we like to provide all the resources that we can to kind of help them achieve that.”
One of the challenges the college faces are low numbers of instructors.
“Like many nursing schools across the country, finding faculty because there is a nursing faculty shortage; as well as clinical placement…your enrollment can limit that,” Mingee said. “We will grow our enrollment. We have to be able to have the faculty and the clinical placements as well.”
Winn says accessibility is paramount as well for students.
“Lakeview offers a wide range of scholarships, and for this current academic year, 100% of our students who applied and met the qualifications received scholarship assistance,” Winn said. “It’s something that really reflects our commitment to helping students achieve their goal of earning a bachelor of science in nursing.”
And Lakeview recently announced a new Dean of Nursing. Dr. Elaine Hardy is serving as the new dean. She has more than two decades of experience in nursing.
“Lakeview is very excited about the future of the college,” Winn said. “With our new leadership team and the many initiatives underway, there is a great deal of momentum on campus, and we’re looking forward to this next chapter.”
“A lot of the community, when they do come in, they don’t realize how big the college is and how much we have to offer,” Mingee said.
The college, located at 903 N. Logan Avenue in Danville, starts classes on Aug. 18.