TAMPA, Fla. — The nursing shortage is continuing to impact hospitals all over the nation. The Florida Hospital Association predicts a shortage of almost 60,000 nurses by 2035 if this continues.
At Moffitt Cancer Center, one of the ways they are tackling the nursing deficit is by increasing their involvement with nursing schools. They launched the accelerated BSN program with the University of South Florida and Nova Southeastern University.
Liza Bryant with Moffitt’s talent acquisition team says the program is for people who already have a bachelor's degree and are looking to go back for about 15 months to get their nursing degree.
"We are partnering with schools in the community and offering scholarships to those students to help them with their education cost so that they can then graduate and become a nurse at Moffitt Cancer Center," Bryant said.
So far, they have given out 30 scholarships to nursing students who have agreed to work with Moffitt after graduation.
Bryant says they are not only continuing to strengthen their relationships with local schools, but they are also trying to draw people in from different areas.
“We also are partnering with nurses at Universities in Puerto Rico as well as nurses across the country,” Bryant explained.
Ahead of opening the new Moffitt McKinley Hospital, the company has 179 open nursing positions.
“We are on track to open in July of 2023 and we are going to have about 19 ORs there so we need about all the nurses we can get,” Bryant said.