At the end of last year, the number of vacant jobs for registered nurses in Florida was approximately 12,500, reports Orlando Sentinel, which cites information from the Florida Center for Nursing. That number is only expected to go up, as the state anticipates adding about 10,000 new registered nurse positions by the end of 2016. According to the center, Florida’s growing and aging population are adding to demand, while nurse retirements are contributing to the shortage.
Still, the University of Central Florida in Orlando and other state colleges must routinely turn away qualified nursing applicants because expanding their programs is too expensive, according to the article.
Colleges are now looking at ways to fight the issue. Anne Peach, a retired nurse and hospital administrator who stepped down last year as vice president for patient care at Orlando Health, was recently hired by Valencia College in Orlando to bring together administrators from the region’s colleges and hospitals and help them jointly try to address the issue, according to the report. The group includes Valencia, UCF, Lake-Sumter State College and Seminole State College of Florida. It met for the first time in September.
Local hospitals said they could use 1,000 more new nurses annually than currently graduate, Cheryl Sciotti, associate dean of nursing for Seminole State, told Orlando Sentinel.
Colleges, meanwhile, are looking for ways to expand, according to Rise Sandrowitz, Valencia’s dean of nursing. Those ways could include holding classes at the hospitals or by adding weekend and evening programs to get more use out of existing facilities, she said in the report.
However, colleges still need a new infusion of state money, if they are to meet the demand for more nurses, James Henningsen, president of the College of Central Florida based in Ocala, who also has worked for Seminole State and Valencia, told Orlando Sentinel.
According to the report, college presidents likely will push for more funding when the legislature meets again in 2017.
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