TAMPA, Fla. — Florida’s nursing shortage is far from over, even as hospitals across the state make progress in filling vacant positions.
According to the Florida Hospital Association, hospitals have reduced nursing vacancy rates by 26% over the past two years. However, some positions remain particularly difficult to fill. Emergency department nurses have a turnover rate of about 20%, while nearly 80% of certified nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses leave their positions within two years or fewer.
With Florida’s population continuing to grow and age, the demand for nurses is expected to increase significantly over the next decade.
The University of South Florida is taking steps to expand the state’s nursing pipeline with a major addition to its College of Nursing. The university has opened a 42,000-square-foot expansion supported in part by a $33 million state investment.
The expansion is expected to help USF graduate 500 additional nursing students.
The new space includes clinical training areas, learning labs, and a nursing simulation lab developed in collaboration with Tampa General Hospital.
The investment could provide a boost for hospitals throughout the Tampa Bay area, including AdventHealth, which is also working to recruit and retain nurses.
AdventHealth Chief Nursing Officer Stormy Dulovich said local universities are doing a good job increasing the pool of nursing candidates, but she emphasized that recruiting is only part of the challenge.
“As a facility and a company we focus on retaining our teams, making sure that the work environment they have is great so that it’s attractive to other nurses,” Dulovich said.
AdventHealth is also working on strategies to keep nurses in the profession, including increasing base pay, offering tuition assistance, and creating career-ladder programs. The hospital also has entry-level positions that can provide pathways into its nursing education programs.
The need for additional nurses is expected to remain significant. The Florida Hospital Association projects that the state could face a shortage of as many as 60,000 nurses by 2035.
Expanding nursing education programs will not eliminate the projected shortage overnight, but each additional training program and expansion increases the number of nurses entering the workforce.
The question now is whether those programs can expand quickly enough to meet Florida’s growing need for nurses over the next decade.