The Florida State University College of Nursing has been awarded more than $1 million from a Florida Department of Education program that aims to combat the state’s growing nursing shortage through innovative academic industry collaboration.
The funding came via two allotments from the DOE’s Linking Industry to Nursing Education, or LINE, Fund, the second of which was approved this month by the State University System Board of Governors. The College of Nursing will use the funds to collaborate with its two Florida-based academic practice partners, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and HCA Florida Capital Hospital, to recruit dedicated clinical faculty, increase scholarships and equip simulation centers to accommodate more students.
“We are grateful for the approval of this critical funding,” said Jing Wang, dean of the College of Nursing. “The LINE Fund really stimulates the alignment between our nursing program and the partnering health care systems, and the College of Nursing will leverage the funding to develop an innovative academic practice model that better serves our students and our partners.”
The Florida Legislature established the LINE Fund during the 2022 session to combat the statewide nursing shortage through collaboration between nursing education programs and health care partners.
Gov. Ron DeSantis approved over $125 million for nursing education for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, including $25 million for the LINE Fund.
The program provides funding for the recruitment of faculty and clinical preceptors, for bolstering the capacity of high-quality nursing education programs and for increasing the number of nursing-education graduates who are prepared to enter the workforce.
The LINE Fund provides matching funds for every dollar contributed to an institution by a health care partner. Wang said the matching funds take investments from health care partners “to a larger scale, to really help us to grow our clinical faculty so that we can better provide a quality clinical learning experience for our students.”
Through their partnership, the College of Nursing and their health care system partners will develop an onboarding and retention plan with a seamless transition for graduates to develop familiarity with the health care system. They are also collaborating on a novel academic practice model in which nurses and clinical faculty train and evaluate students together to ensure that they’re ready for jobs in health care.
The funding and collaboration builds on the College of Nursing’s momentum of recently expanded admissions, the addition of two world-renowned researchers to its faculty and the establishment of the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation. Those initiatives are part of FSU’s emphasis on building out its health research portfolio while pursuing partnerships with major health care entities throughout North Florida and South Georgia, including Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, HCA Florida, Archbold Medical Center based in Thomasville, Ga., and the Mayo Clinic.
“The College of Nursing is experiencing exciting transformational growth on both the academic side and the research side,” Wang said. “We consider ourselves fortunate –- and most certainly equipped — to be at the forefront of driving game-changing research, education and collaboration in health care.”
For more information about the College of Nursing, visit nursing.fsu.edu.
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