HCA Healthcare Support for FIU Nurse Educator Programs

Population growth and aging, retirement, and the COVID-19 pandemic are all playing a role in the growing demand for more nurses. In addition, the country has also faced a shortage of qualified nurse educators to train the next generation of nurses. HCA Healthcare, HCA East Florida Division, and the FIU Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences have teamed up to grow the essential pipeline of nurse educators needed to preserve the future of the nursing workforce.

HCA Healthcare has donated $1.5 million to help increase recruitment for FIU’s Nurse Educator programs and expand the number of registered nurses qualified to teach in nursing programs. HCA Healthcare and FIU Nursing have taken a proactive approach to this problem plaguing hospitals and healthcare systems across the country.

“The sobering fact is that without enough nurse educators today, there will be fewer nurses for tomorrow. HCA Healthcare shares our mission and has stepped up to the plate to grow a robust nursing faculty pipeline through FIU,” said Dean Ora L. Strickland.

FIU’s Nurse Educator programs are poised to expand recruitment this fall when the accelerated RN-BSN-MSN Nurse Educator track is introduced alongside the existing master’s degree and post-graduate certificate programs.

The gift from HCA Healthcare has helped fund scholarships to attract eligible students in all programs and support the addition of full-time faculty positions with FIU Nursing.

FIU will recruit from South Florida’s culturally diverse pool of nurses currently working to prepare them as master’slevel nurse educators. Ultimately, they will be qualified to serve as faculty and preceptors for nursing programs at community colleges, baccalaureate and higher-degree institutions, and clinical sites throughout Florida.

The partnership is part of HCA Healthcare’s commitment of $10 million over three years to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to advance healthcare diversity.

Dr. Strickland added, “From our collaboration to launch the nation’s first Foreign-Educated Physician to Nurse recareering program twenty years ago, to this latest venture to boost enrollment and diversity representation in our nurse educator programs, FIU Nursing is grateful to HCA Healthcare for their continued support as we develop innovative solutions that address critical healthcare industry challenges.”

“We’ve been asked what sort of legacy Angela and I are leaving with this gift to the College, but that’s not for us to say. It will be the students who are truly committed and driven in their FIU education to give back to their communities as accomplished health practitioners and leaders who will forever be writing that legacy for us.”

—Raul A. Chavez