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Alissa Kegler, director of quality and professional resources at Longmont United Hospital, graduated from Skyline High School. Before leaving for college, her mother, who was a nurse, told her she should also be a nurse. Kegler decided then that there was no way she would follow in her mother’s footsteps. Although determined to find another path, Kegler’s journey led her back to nursing.
Kegler attended Colorado State University where she studied social work. At the time, the only job she could find was in a nursing home.
“I found myself, after several years, loving going to the nursing home to go to work but necessarily loving studying social work,” Kegler said. “I decided then that mother was right and I needed to go to nursing school.”
Not only did Kegler switch majors but she decided to pursue a master’s degree in nursing because “I just didn’t feel like I knew enough about nursing,” she said.
When she began nursing she started on a pulmonary and neurological floor, working with people who needed to be on a ventilator or patients with brain or spinal injuries. After finishing her master’s degree, she found herself working in a cardiac unit.
The wide variety of experiences led to her being asked to teach nursing at the university level. Whether it included talking to patients or a new group of students joining her floor, Kegler was always drawn to teaching.
“It is always something I’ve always enjoyed doing and I just gravitated, naturally, toward that,” she said.
In 2006, Kegler returned to Longmont and began working on the cardiac floor and teaching nursing education at Longmont United Hospital.
“It’s evolved. It started with just nursing education, then whole hospital education, then they added quality and case management. There has been a variety of things but always with a focus on nursing and supporting nurses but also supporting the rest of the hospital and supporting excellence,” Kegler said.
Inspired by a hands-on facility for medical learning in Denver that provided simulation learning to those in the workforce and a drive to provide educational opportunities to Longmont, Kegler and LUH created an Innovative Learning Center at the hospital.
“What we realized was, when you create a lifelike simulation and have people practice skills that way, they stick better than if you just tell them how to do it, and lecturing to them,” Kegler said.
When Cindy Noble became executive director of the Longmont United Hospital Foundation, she was looking for new ideas to fund. Kegler, being modest, asked for one simulated manikin.
Noble suggested an entire simulated “family” of five which include an adult male, a female who gives birth, an adolescent, a premature infant and a regular infant, Kegler said.
“We had been down to the simulation center in Denver many times and the setup was beautiful and so conducive to learning that we wanted to, not exactly replicate it, but to come close to the concept,” Kegler said.
While LUH nurses and doctors use the simulators to train, the Innovative Learning Center extends an invitation to others in the community.
Local EMTs, pre-COVID, would utilize the center and practice situations not experienced daily, such as delivering babies.
The hospital also works closely with the Longmont High School Biomedical program allowing students the opportunity to explore and have fun with the possibilities in health care, Kegler said.
The Innovative Learning Center continues to expand its educational offerings. In recent years, it has offered teachings around Dementia, working with a variety of equipment and escape rooms, Kegler said.
“We have expanded what we do for educational offerings. When we say Innovative Learning Center, it’s innovative. We’re thinking of different ways to create education so that it is meaningful,” she said. “We want to be a resource for the community.”
