Photo by Deb Gau U.S. Sen Tina Smith looked over design documents for planned lab space for a four-year nursing program at Southwest Minnesota State University. Smith met with SMSU officials, Todd Squires of designArc Group, and associate professor of nursing Dr. Lindsay Pelz.

MARSHALL — Southwest Minnesota State University is hoping to offer a four-year nursing degree in the future, together with new facilities for a nursing simulation lab. U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said Wednesday it’s a project that will help set the stage to meet future health care needs.

“This nurses’ lab is going to really help Marshall, and really the whole state, get after this need that we have to build the chain of people moving into nursing,” Smith said.

Smith and Sen. Amy Klobuchar worked to include $1.2 million of congressionally directed spending for the SMSU simulation lab in 2026 appropriations bills. On Wednesday, Smith visited campus to meet with university officials and see the area where the new lab would be built.

“I think it’s going to make a big difference, and I was really happy to work with Sen. Klobuchar to help secure some of the funding to make this all come together,” Smith said.

The $1.2 million in spending will be used to help renovate classrooms and create a new realistic simulation lab for a future Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.

“A lot of the funding is to support the high-fidelity equipment, even a little more so than the construction itself,” said Dr. Lindsay Pelz, associate professor of nursing at SMSU. The equipment students use would have a high level of realism, she explained. “It is like you are walking into a clinical room, a patient room, and you are functioning at the highest level.”

“This is going to have a significant impact on our ability to build the four-year program,” said SMSU associate vice president of advancement Nathan Polfliet.

SMSU Provost Ross Wastvedt said that at the same time SMSU is discussing facilities plans, the university is also going through a multi-step process to get approval for the BSN program.

On her visit, Smith saw a computer lab and classroom area that would be part of renovations to build a simulation lab for nursing students. Meredith Hyatt, regional director of philanthropy for the Avera Foundation, said Avera was working together with SMSU to help with planning for the BSN program and facilities.

Hyatt said Avera Marshall also has a simulation lab, and they were doing planning work to make sure that the SMSU and Avera labs didn’t duplicate equipment.

“So then when we’re partnering together, our staff can come over and utilize the equipment,” and university nursing students could do the same with the two labs, she said. “We’re looking forward to that partnership.”

Having more options for nursing education will help with meeting health care needs in the region, Hyatt said. The Avera Health system has identified that it will need 611 nurses by 2029, she said.

SMSU President David Jones praised the collaboration between the university and community partners like Avera.

“(SMSU) was founded with this idea that it would shape the educational experience to meet the needs of its time. Our time right now needs partnership. It needs vision to figure out what our workforce needs are in the future,” Jones said.

Smith said supporting projects like adding a nursing lab at SMSU would help address broader needs for health care workers.

“We are in deep need of RNs across the whole spectrum, just to meet the health care needs of people in small towns and rural communities across the state,” she said. “This is not just a Minnesota issue, it is a federal need as well. And so it’s very important to be supporting the best ideas and the good work of folks on the ground that are actually making it happen and doing that work.”

Smith said being able to visit SMSU in person gave her a chance to understand more about project’s impact.

“When I come to learn about these projects in a little bit more detail, it will help me be a better advocate when I go back to Washington,” she said.