Healthcare Heroes: Community partners boldly lead to delivering more health care workers

By Nathan March | February 2023

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) has offered a nursing degree since its founding in 1957. It was one of the first 30 community colleges nationwide to provide nursing and the first in Florida to receive national accreditation. As the community’s state college, SCF is dedicated to meeting the region’s workforce needs, where the demand for nurses continues to grow. For the last six years, the sense of urgency to ensure enough nursing graduates has increased profoundly as local hospitals also expand to meet local needs.

Growing SCF’s nursing programs has been a priority for SCF President Dr. Carol F. Probstfeld, who is committed to doubling the number of nurses they can graduate each year. This requires additional capacity and investment: faculty, staffing, facilities, and equipment. Nursing is one of SCF’s most expensive workforce programs. It requires a lower-than-usual faculty-to-student ratio, modern and costly simulators, doctoral faculty, and a flexible but well-structured Associate in Science in Nursing (ASN) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree programs.

Recognizing this challenge – local and state legislators, community foundations, and health care organizations have provided the beginning of what SCF hopes to become recurring funding of more than $2.5 million. Through generous foundation grants, and the Prepping Institutions, Programs, Employers, and Learners through Incentives for Nursing Education (PIPELINE) program and Linking Industry to Nursing Education (LINE) funding, SCF can double its annual nursing graduates and accept every qualified student who applies to the nursing program. While SCF has previously only been able to admit 220 new nursing students each fall, the program will accept 350 through the Fall of 2024.

The amount of matched and received LINE funding SCF received is among the top 10 in the state, a testament to the benefits the college has received from local partners and collaborators, such as:

• Cooper Family Medical
• Empath Health
• HCA West Florida
• Lakewood Ranch Medical Center
• Manatee Memorial Hospital
• Sarasota Memorial Hospital
• Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation
• Bishop Parker Foundation
• Florida Blue Foundation
• Ralph S. French Charitable Foundation
• Gulf Coast Community Foundation 

SCF’s Medical Technology & Simulation Center (MTSC) provides top-of-the-line facilities for nursing students. Modeled after the floorplan of a real working hospital, students train with simulator patients that present everything from routine illnesses to extreme pressure scenarios like cardiac arrest and even childbirth. Each of these simulators costs tens of thousands of dollars to purchase and maintain, with a functional life approaching 10 years for each unit. 

SCF prides itself on offering ASN instruction on all three of its campuses. Training nurses in Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, and Venice makes SCF accessible to prospective and current nursing students across the entire region. 

The quality of SCF’s nursing programs is why local hospitals and health care providers seek out these students. In addition, ASN graduates from SCF pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) on their first attempt at a higher rate than other institutions, frequently approaching or achieving a 100% success rate. The track record of successful preparation is also why students choose SCF over public and private institutions. Additionally, SCF’s tuition is among the lowest in Florida, students and alums revere its faculty, and the college offers maximum flexibility with night and weekend classes available.

SCF’s ASN program was recently recognized as the number four program in all of Florida by RegisteredNursing.org. In one of the most detail-oriented and thorough ranking assessments conducted each year, the scoring places SCF firmly in the top five against all other nursing programs in Florida, including both public and private colleges and universities. The BSN degree has also been ranked number one by RegisteredNursing.org on the website’s list of “Best Online R.N. to BSN Programs in Florida.”

The alums who achieved their nursing credentials at SCF extol the virtues of the college as well:

Chris Langnes ‘14 decided to pursue nursing in his 50s. As a U.S. Army veteran and former business owner in the construction industry, he worried about job security and the potential of a late-career construction injury. He decided to make a shift to the health care field. Langnes was inspired by the faculty at SCF, who helped him apply his skills gained earlier in life to his newly chosen profession.

“In my experience running a business, it was always about adapting to the situation,” Langnes said. “It’s the same thing with nursing. What I learned in nursing school was basic knowledge, but my professors always emphasized critical thinking, which is what I apply to my job now – understanding a situation and acting on it.” 

Nathan Hansen ’15 was surprised to learn that, just three years after graduating as a registered nurse (RN), he had been selected as Nurse of the Year at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton. He followed that up with a “Hero of Health Care” award from the Manatee Chamber of Commerce the following summer. Hansen had completed a bachelor’s degree in another field, but after discovering his passion for nursing, SCF proved to be the right fit to prepare him for the rigors of working in a busy hospital.  

“The people there (SCF) are awesome; they encouraged me to come back to school, and they offered me advice,” Hansen said of his SCF experience.

Ashley Eickelmann ’15, ’18 initially faced financial struggles as an obstacle to her goal of becoming a pediatric nurse. She waited to attend college after high school, and when she decided to continue her education, she found, like many students, she made too much money for some forms of financial aid while not earning enough to pay her tuition. However, through determination and perseverance, she earned a scholarship through the SCF Foundation, maintained a 4.0 GPA, worked multiple jobs, and eventually earned an Associate in Arts and her ASN.

Jody Rain ’01, ’14 holds an ASN and BSN degree from SCF. Her career in health care has spanned more than two decades, during which she has never stopped learning. She has an MBA in Health Care Administration and is working on a second master’s degree, this one in Nursing Science – Informatics. Rain returned to SCF recently to speak at a nurse pinning ceremony and share her insights on nursing with dozens of new ASN graduates, encouraging them to “never stop learning.”

Rain has also been recognized as a leader in the nursing industry at the state level – recently reappointed to a second term on the Florida Board of Nursing.

Retired Lt. Col. Tessa Supplee ’82 turned her nursing degree at SCF into a barrier-shattering career as a combat nurse. She earned her nursing degree over four years, working weekends and raising children as a single mother. She started at SCF at age 28. She retired from the military at 68 with missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Haiti. Among her commendations are the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Association of Florida College’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Of her time at SCF, Suplee said: “I gained the self-confidence and discipline I needed and learned I could set myself up to do anything I wanted.”  

SCF has bestowed more than 3,200 nursing degrees since 2010, but the need for nurses remains greater than ever. SCF will continue to lead the way in exploring new avenues to increase the number of highly trained nursing graduates joining the local workforce with the support of our legislature and local partners.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the SCF Nursing Program, visit SCF.edu/Nursing or contact Cassandra Holmes, executive director of the SCF Foundation at 941-752-5654 or HolmesC@SCF.edu.