UCF College of Nursing breaks ground on new Lake Nona facility

ORLANDO, Fla. - On Friday, the University of Central Florida’s College of Nursing broke ground on their new stand-alone building at the Lake Nona Medical City campus. The building will allow more students to enroll at a critical time.

There is already a nursing shortage throughout the state and country. According to the Florida Hospital Association (FHA), it’s only going to get worse unless something changes.

The FHA predicts that we will face a shortfall of 59,000 nurses by 2035. Dean Mary Lou Sole of the UCF College of Nursing said their current facility is busting at the seams.

"We cannot grow," Sole said. "We cannot take more students."

However, that is all about to change now that $68 million dollars has been raised by donors, charities, hospitals, and grants from the state to make way for the Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion.

Renderings show what the new campus will look like. It’s a smart building spanning 90,000 square feet, which is nearly double the size of their currently leased space on the third floor of a research building on UCF’s main campus.

"We’re so excited to have our own building with a huge simulation lab that is going to be great," said Dr. Frank Guido-Sanz, associate professor at the UCF College of Nursing. "We’re going to have more space and more opportunities for increasing the student body and also getting more technology. Right now, we’re very limited in space."

MORE HEADLINES:

• Brightline Melbourne crash: 2 dead in second collision this week at same location involving train
• Palm Coast elevates fix to new construction flooding as high priority
• Reserved parking coming to Orlando International Airport

Victoria Trautwein is a junior studying nursing and said the new building will be a game changer in the classroom.

"I think just having more room and more of everything. Right now, we have to share a lot of stuff. So being able to spend your whole lab time focusing on one skill and not having to wait for three other people to do it so we can really efficiently use all of our time and practice."

The college will continue to invest in some of the best technology available when it comes to equipment, virtual reality, and life-like mannequins that simulate real challenges in care. The current facility serves 2,700 enrolled nursing students.

"Our goal is to increase capacity by at least 50 percent or at least another 150 students per year that are graduating to be new nurses in the workforce," Sole said. "But our other part of the goal is to educate more faculty and researchers for the future. We have an aging faculty workforce, and we need faculty that can teach both college level and the university level."

The nursing shortage is already being felt locally, and UCF hopes its nationally top-ranked nursing program will address that need before it hits a critical level.

Demand is high, and the job market for current graduates is strong. Dean Sole said nearly all UCF nursing students have job offers with competitive salaries before they graduate.

Registered Nurse Samantha Saint Fort is one of the 85% of nursing alumni who chose to stay and work in Florida.

"I interviewed with them as a student and received that job offer as a student, contingent on passing my license exam," she said.

The construction project will take 18 months to complete and will be ready to welcome students in the fall of 2025.