PINELLAS PARK, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A new state investment is helping train the next generation of nurses in Florida, with more than $20 million going to nursing programs across the state.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
A new state investment is helping train the next generation of nurses in Florida
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More than $20 million is going to nursing programs across the state
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The state says it has invested $485 million in nursing programs since 2022<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis says the expanded funding and scholarships could help fill critical health care jobs, and it\u2019s already making a difference for students at St. Pete College.<\/p>\n
While it looks like a hospital, it\u2019s actually Kaylee Wynn\u2019s classroom at St. Pete College, and Mr. Hercules, a simulation mannequin, is her patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t expect it, you go up to a mannequin and it\u2019s breathing, so it\u2019s the weirdest thing at first. But you kind of get used to it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kaylee is a fourth-semester nursing student and will graduate in May. Nursing will be Kaylee\u2019s second career \u2014 she was a special needs teacher, until something happened in her life that prompted her to make a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my dad was hit by a drunk driver, I saw him in and out of hospitals having experiences, good and bad ones. Those things change how you feel about things, so I wanted to make an impact on people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kaylee received the LINE scholarship from the state to help her pay for nursing school.\u00a0DeSantis recently awarded $20 million to LINE funding, saying Florida is investing to strengthen the health care workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you\u2019re in nursing school, it\u2019s hard to get the hours for work. You go from full-time to not working much, so any scholarship opportunity is great,\u201d said Kaylee.<\/p>\n
SPC Dean of Nursing Jean Lee, who has been in nursing since 1991, says the demand for nurses is always there, but especially now.\u00a0SPC recently expanded its program, and she says state funding is crucial to provide students with the essential equipment they need, like simulation mannequins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is that the simulation center mimics the real-world hospital, and so we have to provide experiences for them in simulation that will equate to what they experience when they go into the hospital and take care of real patients,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n
Kaylee says that experience means when she graduates, she\u2019ll be confident caring for patients from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state says it has invested $485 million in nursing programs since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS PARK, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A new state investment is helping train the next generation of nurses in Florida, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4996,3948,5711,28,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-136060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-app-health","10":"tag-fallon-silcox","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}