Expanded Nursing Facility Opens at ISU

PEORIA ( 25News Now ) -A brand new, expanded medical training center opened Thursday in Normal, projected to churn out 20% of Central Illinois' future nurses.

Three years after Illinois State University leaders approved the $18 million dollar project, the now much larger Mennonite College of Nursing Simulation Center can take students into the 26,000 square foot facility, complete with a four bed hospital space and virtual reality tech.

"This is money that's going to help our community greatly as we think about the nursing shortage that we have. We're going to be educating future nurses. And when you educate nurses in a university like I-s-u, they stay in our community. They thrive in our community," said Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Illinois).

The expanded center should allow ISU and the Mennonite College of Nursing to take in up to 1,200 students at a time when multiple medical staffers have said that nurses are in high demand.