A Need for Nurses: Local organizations step up to care for those who care for us

By Chloe Cuyler | January 2022

Imagine working long hours on your feet, constantly moving about. Navigating complicated healthcare bureaucracies. Facing a steady stream of worried and disgruntled patients. Coping with emotional exhaustion after losing a patient you had grown to love. This is the reality of many nurses in today’s healthcare field. 

When COVID-19 arrived, challenges increased. Seemingly overnight, nurses became the only point of contact between critically ill patients and their families. While caring for these patients, nurses also had to protect themselves from the pandemic. Between workplace fatigue, lack of space in local nursing education programs, and the barrier of time and money needed to attend post-secondary educational courses, vacancies have increased in the nursing field. 

At present, over 1,300 nursing positions are available in Manatee and Sarasota counties. An October 2021 report from the Florida Hospital Association predicts that by 2035, Florida will have over 59,000 unfilled nursing positions available. 

To address this pressing need, a group of organizations in Sarasota and Manatee counties are tackling this shortage head-on. The State College of Florida, University of South Florida, CareerEdge, and the Suncoast Nursing Action Coalition have all been developing programs to provide nurses, aspiring nurses, and other healthcare facility workers opportunities to advance in their careers, get formal education, and manage the pressures of their jobs.

State College of Florida: Making Education More Accessible

State College of Florida is creating a new way to give current members of the workforce, parents, and whoever else cannot attend college during traditional hours, a chance to get the education that they desire and deserve. 

Beginning in fall 2022, SCF will be offering a new nursing degree program with classes at night and on weekends. This program is designed not only to give aspiring healthcare professionals a chance to learn after their working days are finished, but it will also give them the opportunity to put newly acquired knowledge and skills to good use by lending a helping hand at our community hospitals. 

This outstanding program is being launched thanks to a $450,000 grant from The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation. This upcoming fall, 30 students will kick off the new nursing program, a number that State College of Florida hopes to continuously grow over time.

Visit scf.edu to learn more.

University of South Florida: Improving the Working Environment

The University of South Florida is doing its part by providing current and future nurses with a way to care for themselves, while still caring for others. In partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital, USF Health College of Nursing will launch a new program in Spring 2022, titled Excellence in Nursing During COVID-19 and Beyond, aimed to help workforce retention.

This program will offer tools and strategies to help nurses manage the stress and demand of their jobs, which has multiplied greatly since the beginning of the pandemic. Part of the program is a clinical preceptorship-to-hire program available to USF nursing students who have committed to employment at Sarasota Memorial Hospital or its Venice facility after they have graduated. 

Behind the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation’s training and research program is a generous $400,000 grant from The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation. In addition, David Kotok and Christine Schlesinger were major donors, giving $115,000 to the effort. Other support has been received from private donors, the USF foundation, and a $25,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

Visit health.usf.edu/nursing to learn more

CareerEdge Funders Collaborative: Helping Employees Reach Their Full Potential

“Workforce development is ultimately investing in your team members so you can grow, and ideally, retain them,” says Kristi Hoskinson, Vice President of CareerEdge, a workforce development initiative driven by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. It offers grant-funding dollars to organizations that are committed to developing and educating their workforce through a process called upskilling.

This grow-from-within approach allows organizations to take entry to mid-level employees—whether that be a custodian wanting to begin their career in healthcare or an LPN wanting to become an RN—and, through training, aid in the growth of their own workforces.

In fall 2021, CareerEdge gave $42,500 to Manatee Memorial Hospital. These funds will offset the $207,000 the hospital is investing in the upskilling of 25 of its entry to mid-level employees. The two organizations have been working in tandem to further develop the workforce since 2010 and have, thus far, aided 200 workers in advancing in their careers.

“CareerEdge serves very specific industries within the Sarasota-Manatee County regions,” says Hoskinson. She says that Manatee Memorial has “a deep belief in what we do and not just helping improve their own workforce, but impacting the healthcare community.”

Visit sarasotachamber.com/careeredge-funders-collaborative to learn more.

Suncoast Nursing Action Coalition: Allowing Nurses To Reach Their Educational Goals

The Suncoast Nursing Action Coalition (SNAC) focuses on educating and qualifying nurses so they can teach nursing students in Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto, and Charlotte counties. SNAC was started by Jan Mauck, a former chief nursing officer who worked in the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System for 41 years, and Charles Baumann, an Of Counsel member of Kerkering & Barberio. 

So how does SNAC go about increasing the education of nurses within the four-county region? One major way is through scholarships. “We’ve given over a million dollars in scholarships to students that either want to go back and get their bachelor’s degree or decide to get it from the beginning,” says Mauck. Suncoast Nursing Action Coalition also works with students who would like to pursue their doctorate degrees and begin teaching. 

SNAC also helps ensure there are enough accredited nursing schools in the area. “There’s not a lack in the number of people who want to go into nursing,” begins Mauck. “What there’s a lack of is qualified, credentialed schools that have enough slots to provide programs for nursing. We had no traditional BSN programs in this region.” 

Thanks to the help of SNAC, there are now two traditional nursing programs in the region, in which students can earn their BSNs. In addition, colleges have streamlined their programs. This means that students can go directly into a four-year program after completing their first two years, without any additional courses being required. “I would say that’s probably our biggest accomplishment,” says Mauck. 

The workforce is forever changing and evolving. Jobs that our grandparents could never have imagined in their wildest dreams have come about. Jobs that were once a staple of our society are becoming obsolete. But one career that will always remain is that of nursing. 

Nurses are so much more than just a part of our workforce, they are capeless heroes much needed in our communities—now more than ever. “It’s extremely important that they be taken care of,” says Mauck. “So they can take care of others.”

Visit snac4fl.org to learn more.