University of Florida College of Nursing Receives $3.6 Million to Solve Nursing Shortage

University of Florida College of Nursing will receive an amount of $3.6 million to fight the nursing shortage, the college has announced.

According to a press release issued by the UF College of Nursing, the institution has received the abovementioned amount in state grants referred to as Prepping Institutions, Programs, Employers, and Learners through incentives for nursing education funding for 2023, Erudera.com reports.

The statement notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important it is for nursing schools to educate the next generation of nursing students, as during the pandemic, there was a shortage of nursing care in hospitals, schools as well as at nursing homes.

“Now, thanks to an effort by Florida lawmakers to combat the nursing shortage, the University of Florida College of Nursing plans to build a “pipeline” to move well-prepared nurses into the workforce,” the media release reads.

UF College of Nursing Dean, Anna McDaniel, highlighted that the University of Florida is a well-known nursing institution in the state; hence, the school is proud of its advancement in nursing education.

“With the PIPELINE funding, we will not only increase the supply of front-line BSN-prepared nurses but also grow our graduate student body, which will contribute to the nursing faculty pipeline and further address the current nursing shortage,” McDaniel stressed.

The college said it is working to meet student enrollment targets by expanding its faculty resources and increasing the number of students accepted to pursue its top-ranked Doctor of Nursing Practice, as well as the number of those admitted to Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

Under the PIPELINE funding, the college is planning to increase the number of faculty, recruiting nearly 20 new faculty at undergraduate and graduate levels of studies.

The institution is also expected to increase the number of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the UF Health Jacksonville campus by 50 percent in 2023 and potentially double it in 2025. At the same time, enrollment at the home campus in Gainesville is expected to increase by 25 percent.

As part of its efforts to address the nursing shortage, the college has prioritized students who plan to pursue nursing studies or those who need financial support. As a result, undergraduates and graduates will be eligible for new PIPELINE-created scholarships.

“As a first-generation student, being a scholarship recipient is an important reason why I was able to attend the University of Florida,” nurse Rose Termidor who received this type of scholarship, said.

University of Florida College of Nursing was created in 1956 and it is among the six colleges in the UF Academic Health Center. The college is a preeminent institution in nursing education, having offered the first nursing practice programs and the first Ph.D. in Nursing Science program in the state of Florida.

It ranks in the top ten percent of graduate degree awarding nursing institutions across the nation. Nowadays, it employs more than 80 faculty and has about 500 undergraduate students and 400 graduates in Biobehavioral Nursing Science and Family and Community and Health System Science departments.