Schools boost nursing plans
State colleges aim to reduce critical dearth of nurses in region
Addressing a critical shortage, students will soon be able to earn their bachelors degrees at four Central Florida state colleges, as part of a regional effort to increase the number of nurses with higher academic training.
State colleges also say they plan to increase the number of students in two-year, associate degree programs by admitting several hundred more each year. At Valencia College and Seminole State College, the number of associate-level students is expected to grow from about 870 to 1,700.
The colleges will be able to start admitting students into the bachelor’s programs, which will target working registered nurses with associate degrees, as early as next year.
The opportunity appeals to nursing students like Ethan Huynh, who plans to receive his associate degree from Valencia in December.
“I don’t ever want to plateau,” said Huynh, 25, who became interested in nursing after working as a medication technician at an assisted living facility.
In 2015, Florida had more than 12,000 vacancies for registered nurses, the most recent data
available from the Florida Center for Nursing.
“We were producing about 1,500 a year too few nurses in our region,” Valencia president Sandy Shugart told the Board of Education last week before it approved the new programs. “That’s 1,500 jobs unfilled annually at $70,000 to $80,000 per year — the kinds of salaries that change the trajectory of a family.”
Seats are limited in the University of Central Florida’s traditional bachelor’s program, which routinely turns away qualified candidates. While the university has space in a mostly online program for nurses who already had associate degrees, students may prefer to earn bachelor’s degrees at the state colleges, said Mary Lou Sole, the dean of UCF’s College of Nursing.
“I think that people are aware there is a shortage and there is a need and want to do something different,” she said.
Valencia, Seminole State, Lake-Sumter State College and Eastern Florida State College in Brevard County are participating in the expansion.
The health care profession is growing more complex, and school leaders say employers increasingly want nurses who have bachelor’s degrees. The additional training helps nurses develop critical thinking skills and theoretical knowledge and helps prepare them for supervisory and case management duties.
Central Florida has a huge deficit in the number of registered nurses, said Anne Peach, a former vice president at Orlando Health. While local associate programs produce strong graduates, she said, they’re limited in what they can do to care for patients, and many hospitals want to hire candidates with bachelor’s degrees.
She worked with administrators from the area’s colleges and hospitals to figure out a ways to combat the nursing shortage. The addition of the bachelor’s degree programs at the state colleges was the result of that effort.
Of the more than 29,000 registered nurses in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Sumter counties, about half have bachelor’s degrees in nursing or higher, according to data from the Florida Center for Nursing.
But that number falls far short of a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine, which called for 80 percent of nurses to have bachelor’s degrees by 2020.
Students who don’t already have associate degrees could earn a bachelor’s degree for about $12,000 to $14,000 at the state colleges, including tuition and fees, according to materials the institutes submitted to the state. In some cases, though, colleges said there will be opportunities for students to earn the degree for as little as $10,000.
The colleges say they don’t expect to have any trouble filling the additional spaces in their associate programs or in the new bachelor’s degree programs.
Valencia’s nursing program has just less than 600 students and plans to double admissions within five years. The college initially expects about 100 students to enroll in the bachelor’s degree program, but that could quickly grow to 300 to 400 students because most of the program is online.
Seminole State admits about 270 students per year to its two-year program and the admissions process is competitive, said Cheryl Cicotti, the dean of nursing.
“We take the cream of the crop every time,” she said.
About 1,500 Seminole students are taking prerequisite courses right now, and within five years, the college plans to admit 500 students annually into the nursing program.
Several Valencia students, including Brion Jones, said recently they’re considering going back to earn bachelor’s degrees after they graduate in December from Valencia’s associate program.
For now, Jones, who is 22, said he’s eager to start his career.
“Nursing will allow me to make a difference in the lives of my patients every day,” he said.