Florida has a growing demand for nurses, more than one in five nursing positions at Florida hospitals is vacant, Florida Hospital Association CEO Mary Mayhew said, and staff turnover is at a historic high.
There are not enough nurses now and that trend will continue into the next decade! That is the major finding of a new report commissioned by the Florida Hospital Association and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.
The report’s projections show Florida will face a shortfall of 59,100 nurses by 2035. This includes a 12 percent shortfall, -37,400, in Registered Nurses (RN) and a 30 percent shortfall, -21,700, in Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN).
Prior to the current spike in COVID-19, Florida had an 11 percent vacancy rate for nurses. During the pandemic, the problem has worsened as one in four nurses left their positions.
Florida has an added problem
As Florida struggles with a growing demand for nurses, its system for training them has a serious problem. Every year, thousands of Florida nursing school graduates fail at the finish line, unable to make the final milestone required to become licensed.
Florida nursing students are failing at a rate higher than anywhere else in the nation.
To be clear, not all Florida nursing programs are failing. The majority of Florida’s public universities, community colleges and nonprofit institutions have pass rates at or above the national averages for both registered and practical nurses.
FAMU isn’t among that group.
In recent years FAMU’s School of Nursing has struggled. In 2021 the school’s undergraduate program was placed on probation by the Florida Board of Nursing due to its first-time licensure pass rates. Only now the (undergraduate) nursing program remains accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) for “good cause”, which means the school has not remedied its deficiencies but has demonstrated progress.
Just this week FAMU missed out on a share of $79 million in funding Governor Ron DeSantis awarded to high-performing nursing education programs in Florida. The funding rewarded public postsecondary nursing programs that have gone above and beyond to train Floridians and provides matching funds for scholarship awards, faculty recruitment, equipment and additional educational supports.
“These awards will meet a critical need of our state by ensuring we continue to have high-quality nursing graduates and by creating new opportunities for Floridians interested in healthcare,” DeSantis said.
To be eligible for the funding nursing programs had to achieve a first-time National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination (NCLEX) passage rate of at least 70% .
Last year FAMU nursing students sitting for the NCLEX exam saw slight improvements in their test scores on the March exam with a pass rate of 64.71%, by June that pass rate had improved to 83.3%. However, The Florida Board of Nursing requires programs to meet the national average for first-time pass rate of about 86%.
As FAMU’s undergraduate nursing program has struggled, the school has pivoted to focusing more on graduate education by adding three new online masters tracks that begin enrolling students this month.
To be eligible for the funding nursing programs had to achieve a first-time National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination (NCLEX) passage rate of at least 70% .
Last year FAMU nursing students sitting for the NCLEX exam saw slight improvements in their test scores on the March exam with a pass rate of 64.71%, by June that pass rate had improved to 83.3%. However, The Florida Board of Nursing requires programs to meet the national average for first-time pass rate of about 86%.
As FAMU’s undergraduate nursing program has struggled, the school has pivoted to focusing more on graduate education by adding three new online masters tracks that begin enrolling students this month.
“Nursing is hard. It’s life and death every day and you have to be prepared,” said Willa Fuller, executive director of the Florida Nurses Association. “And you need to know your (school) will train you right.”