🏥 New $40M Facility – NWFSC unveiled its renovated multi-story nursing school, doubling its capacity to train nurses.
👩⚕️ Student Voices – Nursing students Sarah Hanson and Elise Birmingham shared how family support and strong teaching drew them to the program.
💉 Addressing Shortages – With Triumph Gulf Coast and state funding, the expansion will help ease Florida’s 16,000-nurse shortfall.
After the ceremony that officially opened Northwest Florida State College’s $40 Million + nursing school, two student nurses showed me around the place.
You could tell, just like Northwest Florida State College President Mel Ponder said in his christening of the facility, The facility means so much to so many people in the community.
“They’re seeing our students and they are empowering them to do amazing things,” said Northwest Florida State College President Mel Ponder, “This building is a testament to investment in education, to healthcare and the future of our region.”
RELATED: NWFSC named to Forbes’ Nursing List
Two nursing students, Sarah Hanson and Elise Birmingham, showed me every lecture hall and practical lab in the multi-story building that got ripped down to the studs and rebuilt into a brand new facility over the last two years.
Smiles on their faces and the excitement in their voices said it all – even though they were in the last stretch of their learning, they were excited about the future of the school.
Elise is one of 13 children, and has a passion for helping others, which she learned from living in a large family. She makes the commute from more than an hour and a half to attend Northwest Florida because it has one of the highest pass rates in the state for the required licensure test to become a registered nurse.
“I know that they are actually teaching the information that can get us to pass and get us to do those clinical skills on the floor,“ she said, “I really want to go into pediatrics because I’ve always really loved helping people and caring for others. I feel good when I help others.”
For Sarah, Northwest represented the opportunity to pursue her vocation in nursing while staying near her family, which provides her emotional support to make it through a tough curriculum.
“I’m very big on family and having a support system,“ Hanson said, “It’s not an easy program, and that’s the reality of it. But having a good support system is crucial. So, knowing I’m able to go home and have a nice dinner with my family after a long day was a big part of it.”
The pair guides me through the refurbished hallways. In the entryway to the school on the ground level, we pass by a large wall with what looks like white picture frames. They are actually recessed shelves that hold medals and awards the college has received over the years.
We head down the stairs to the first lab room, where a mannequin in a hospital bed greets us. We head to our next station, where we find a professor in a virtual reality headset demonstrating some of the practical learning that takes place.
I ask how real it is – are there any scary scenarios? The pair tells me they’ve used the headsets to practice dealing with aggressive patients, patients presenting with complex diagnoses. They’ve even used it to deal with a scenario where someone was bleeding out and they needed to save their lives – right now.
Up the stairs, there are cavernous lecture halls, complete with more gurneys and mannequins. Instead of a class of 25, like Elise and Sarah’s – students will have cohorts closer to 60 students.
The Expansion more than doubles the number of nurses created in the Florida panhandle every summer. While the nursing shortage has eased in the last three years – according to the Florida Hospital Association ,we went from almost 60,000 nursing vacancies in the state to about 16,000 – we still need more nurses to care for an aging state.
The new facility, created with the help of a grant worth more than $20 million from Triumph Gulf Coast (the largest ever single chunk of cash given to the College in its more than half century of operation) and another $13 Million from the State of Florida’s budget means that larger cohorts of students can go through the Associate and Bachelor’s degree level programs offered at the college.
The project had a “wall-breaking” ceremony in October of 2023.
Florida Secretary of Commerce Alex Kelly attended the ribbon-cutting as well as an economic forum earlier in the day that was sponsored by the College. He emphasized the role healthcare systems have in attracting business to the region. “It’s critical because quality of life matters. If you want to grow a business community, if you want to invite businesses to come here and create great jobs, you have to have a higher quality of life,” Kelly said, “You don’t take your family, you don’t take your company somewhere you are not going to be cared after.”
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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