{"id":262934,"date":"2026-05-08T02:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/262934\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T02:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:51:12","slug":"florida-nursing-workforce-grows-but-struggles-to-meet-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/262934\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida nursing workforce grows but struggles to meet demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida\u2019s nearly 500,000 nurses could soon fall short of demand as the state\u2019s workforce ages and population grows.<\/p>\n

The Florida Center for Nursing studied the state\u2019s nursing workforce<\/a>. Executive Director Rayna Letourneau said while there are more nurses today compared to five years ago, the workforce is getting older. Only 7.2% are under 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cShortfalls that I\u2019m concerned about is making sure that we have a healthy nursing workforce,\u201d Letourneau said.<\/p>\n

Letourneau said the state needs to focus on keeping experienced nurses in the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have work to do to keep our experienced nurses in our workforce, really making sure that we focus on their well-being and other aspects that will keep them in our profession,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Live Healthy Act created a pipeline to expand nursing education programs across the state. Tallahassee State College is part of the expansion with a new Licensed Practical Nurse program launching this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we need to continue to have a robust healthcare pipeline and there is a shortage in this area of qualified healthcare professionals,\u201d said Shelly Bell, Tallahassee State College VP of Workforce Development.<\/p>\n

More Florida politics:<\/p>\n

Bell said the one-year program offers a quick entry into healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo students can come in and get out. Get straight to work and then if they want to continue their healthcare journey and stack on additional credentials or come back to school to become a registered nurse, they have that easy segway to do so,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n

Letourneau said growth needs to happen in the right places.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognizing the need for nurses in community settings, in schools, in jails, in physicians\u2019 offices or other providers\u2019 offices, and not just that hospital setting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Florida Center for Nursing report said another way to help alleviate the strain is to encourage multistate licensure so people from other states could work in Florida.<\/p>\n

Enrollment for TSC\u2019s LPN program<\/a> is open until May 22.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida\u2019s nearly 500,000 nurses could soon fall short of demand as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[113454,113,28,113455,2161,571,7931,10327,113456,36360,8438,99,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-262934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-cody-butle","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-florida-center-for-nursing","tag-government","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-learning","tag-live-healthy-act","tag-nursing","tag-nursing-program","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262934","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=262934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}