A lactation room is one of many rooms in the newly expanded UT Tyler School of Nursing building. (Raquel Villatoro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

After two years of planning, the UT Tyler School of Nursing unveiled the newly expanded David G. and Jacqueline M. Braithwaite Building on Friday morning.

This September, UT Tyler School of Nursing students will start classes in a new classroom.

“It’s so exciting, and it is so phenomenal,” said Barbara Haas, UT Tyler School of Nursing Dean. “When you walk in, you’ll see it was worth the wait.”

The building has two stories, with the first floor being 34,000 square feet. The second floor, still in construction, will be 24,000 square feet, according to Fitzpatrick Architects Project Manager Joshua Steed.

In addition to receiving more space, students will have access to a new simulation lab, health assessment lab, skills lab, a kitchen area, advising offices and a large classroom that will fit about 160 students. Their previous three classrooms were too small for their student groups. The computer lab will be double the previous size, according to Haas.

“We get to expand the capacity to help our students, help our faculty serve others, take care of patients and change the lives of East Texas,” said UT Tyler President Dr. Julie V. Philley.

After the second floor is completed, the building will feature a wellness center for faculty and staff, along with a community program with exercises for people with chronic illnesses. In addition, there will be community room for activity groups, a research center with a data analytics lab and a student affairs area, Haas added.

Haas has been at the school for 42 years and has seen the growth of the program. She loves the School of Nursing because of its culture.

“We could be doing our School of Nursing in a tent under the trees, and you would still have that same culture of caring and support and that drive to just be the best that we can be and to produce the best nurses that we possibly can,” Haas said.

Hands-on-training is essential for nurses. In order to help combat the national nursing shortage and meet the need for healthcare workers in East Texas, the nursing school needs to ensure their students are prepared when they enter the workforce.

Through the simulation lab, students learn soft skills, communication and physical skills, such as how to administer IVs. The simulation lab has 12 hospital rooms, two home health rooms and five labs for specific areas of nursing.

The school also has manikins of babies and mothers to teach nursing students how to interact with them. Three of the infant manikins can cry and move their arms and legs.

In addition, three of the newest manikins serve to teach students how to care for patients in a home health setting. The two primary manikins are Gumard and Laerdel.

“We’re trying to meet the needs of every single student, no matter what program they’re in, to make sure that they have the equipment that they need to have their training,” said Hillary Oliver, UT Tyler School of Nursing Director of Simulation. “[So] they feel comfortable going into the community and they can deliver the best possible care for their patients.”

Oliver has been part of the planning since the beginning. After keeping the plans a secret, she is excited faculty and staff can finally see the newly expanded building.

“If you would have asked me when I started here three and a half years ago that this is where we would be now, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Oliver said. “All of the architects, the construction guys that have been part of this project, they took everything that I said and just brought it to life better than I could have possibly imagined.”

For UT Tyler alumnus and simulation lab operation specialists Holly Moore and Tiffany Cooper, their training in the lab prepared them for the real world. Now, they get to give back by helping nursing students.

“It is a safe place to make mistakes and to learn,” Moore said. “The evidence shows that nurses are more confident whenever they have simulation experience and then go into the hospital, it also shows there [is] an increase in better patient outcomes.”

At the simulation lab, students are taught medical surgery to bring together the various pieces of nursing and ensure students have that foundation.

Cooper was a medical surgery travel nurse at Christus before joining the simulation lab in 2020.

“We’re able to bring that real-life experience into the simulation and make it as realistic as possible,” Cooper said. “That way, whenever they get out into the clinical setting, they’re not so scared.”

Moore, a 2018 UT Tyler graduate, joined the simulation lab a month ago to integrate critical care into the training for students. When she was a student, the simulation lab helped her think on the spot and apply what she learned.

“What I get most out of this is knowing that I am helping train the providers of tomorrow that will take care of me, my children, my parents, many of these nurses stay in this area just like I did, and knowing that I am directly helping the future leaders of tomorrow as well as my community, is what really brings me joy in this role,” Moore said.

Some of the many accomplishments from the School of Nursing include starting the first doctoral program at UT Tyler. Recently, the school started a critical care pathway program. This fall the school will start an adult, geriatric and acute care nurse practitioner program in response to community needs from their partners. In the future, the school plans to become a certified simulation center.

During Friday morning’s ribbon cutting, Haas thanked the UT Tyler community and their partners for their support.

“As we cut this ribbon today, we are not just opening a building, we are opening doors to new possibilities, new careers and a brighter future for our students and the East Texas community,” Haas said.