OCALA, FL (352today.com) – This morning, Sept. 21, the College of Central Florida (CF) officially broke ground on the second of three Health Sciences building projects funded by the Florida Legislature. While the other projects involve refurbishing existing buildings into centers for Health Sciences classrooms, today’s ceremony marked the beginning of construction on a brand-new building: the two-story, 42,500-square-foot Center for Nursing on CF’s Ocala campus.
CF’s Citrus campus Nursing program was ranked the best in the state by RegisteredNursing.org. Officials in attendance today hope this project on the Ocala campus will expand the program’s success into Marion County.
RELATED: CF nursing program receives $5 million from the Citrus County Hospital Board
According to CF President Dr. Jim Henningsen, the college has been working on expanding its Health Sciences program since 2017. With Ocala expanding faster than ever in recent years, the need for local nurses has become even more critical, he said at today’s ceremony.
“A lot of folks sometimes say, ‘The students graduate, and they’ll leave the community,'” said Henningsen. “Our surveys show that, of our alumni, 75% of them stay right here in our service district to work.”
This is necessary in a fast-growing community like ours, especially when Florida’s nursing shortage is showing no signs of stopping: Dr. Jennifer Fryns, Vice President of Workforce Development and Innovation at CF, shared data from the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) projecting a shortage of 59,000 nurses across the state by 2035.
There isn’t a shortage of opportunity for future nurses, though. Actually, Kevin Sheilley, CEP President/CEO of the Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership (CEP), said it’s quite the opposite.
“I was looking last night just at building permits in the City of Ocala for the last two weeks,” recounted Sheilley. “There was more than $100,000,000 in healthcare permits [and] new construction.”
MORE: College of Central Florida set to break ground for $20 million nursing center
He went on to emphasize the importance of strengthening Ocala’s healthcare workforce as the population rises.
“We’re going to need more nurses,” Sheilley said. “We’re going to need more Allied Health. We’re going to need more people working to take care of the thousand people a month that are moving into our community, and this is such an important part of that.”
The Marion County Hospital District (MCHD) also contributed millions to the state-funded Center for Nursing. Construction begins soon, and it’s projected to conclude in winter 2024. The first classes in the building will begin in January 2025.
Digitally rendered mock-ups of the future Center for Nursing were hung all around the ceremony area. A video with more images and information can be viewed here.