{"id":401965,"date":"2026-09-16T23:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401965\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:26:08","slug":"usf-st-petersburg-launches-new-nursing-pathway-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401965\/","title":{"rendered":"USF St. Petersburg launches new nursing pathway program"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 For the first time, incoming freshmen can enroll in a four-year bachelor\u2019s degree program at the USF St. Petersburg College of Nursing.<\/p>\n

Students will have the chance to begin their nursing education at the very start of college.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning inside the simulation nursing lab, associate professor of nursing Dr. Allyson Duffy took freshman Hannah Conroy under her wing.<\/p>\n

An enthusiastic Duffy said, “That is the best part of my job! I love meeting new, exciting, passionate students who know that they’re here for, what I consider the ‘right’ reasons, meaning they know that they want to be in nursing from the jump.”<\/p>\n

Conroy is one of at least 60 students enrolled in a new Freshman Nursing Pathway program<\/a> at USF St. Pete.<\/p>\n

During the first two years, students will complete nursing education prerequisites. Then, if they meet certain requirements, they’ll automatically bump up to the upper division program.<\/p>\n

The program caught Conroy’s attention, which narrowed down her choice.<\/p>\n

“The direct entry program being offered here is definitely one of the things that brought me way closer to this decision,” Conroy said.<\/p>\n

Attracting people to this location is important for Duffy.<\/p>\n

“We have students who may live in the community, live in Pinellas, Manatee, Hillsborough and know from the start that they want to get into nursing and it just helps to ensure that they are coming in to care for the community and stay in the community,” said Duffy.<\/p>\n

Duffy notes nearby hospitals, such as Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital and Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, need help, too.<\/p>\n

“They want those students who are doing their clinicals in this area in Pinellas County to be trained in these facilities,” she shared.<\/p>\n

Clinicals don’t begin until junior year, but the work starts on day one for freshmen.<\/p>\n

Conroy explained that her experience so far has been positive.<\/p>\n

“I have fantastic advisors that help me through every step of the way, even though I’m not quite in that upper division nursing pathway yet,” she added.<\/p>\n

Duffy acknowledged, that early bonding is important.<\/p>\n

She said, “So it’s unique in that we can start setting those, that sort of foundation and groundwork and also developing the relationships with us, as faculty, and with their advisors early, so that they know that they’re supported and then they can come right in.”<\/p>\n

This latest effort comes at a critical time.<\/p>\n

A recent analysis by the Florida Hospital Association<\/a> projected a shortage of more than 59,000 nurses by 2035.<\/p>\n

“We also live in a community where we have more and more patients that need to be seen … then we’re going to need more and more nurses and so we’re hoping that this pathway helps with combatting that shortage,” added Duffy.<\/p>\n

To continue curbing this issue, USF also celebrated the opening of a newly expanded facility in August to enhance training for nurses.<\/p>\n

The College of Nursing has also made a commitment to graduate an extra 500 undergraduate students by year 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 For the first time, incoming freshmen can enroll in a four-year bachelor\u2019s degree program…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3948,571,6075,115438,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-401965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-health","tag-health","tag-health-and-medicine","tag-justina-rhines","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401965","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=401965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}