Usha Menon, dean of the College of Nursing, said the expansion of the Tampa campus nursing facilities – including a new simulation lab – will further establish it as a top program in the state.

Menon said the renovations will enhance the college’s ability to provide hands-on education at the lab, allowing students to train in realistic, high-pressure scenarios. 

“With the growing number of students requiring placements in local hospitals, we must ensure our students gain invaluable hands-on experience,” Menon said.

The new nursing facilities will have 12 clinical examination rooms, four simulation learning labs, a multipurpose learning lab, six high-fidelity simulation rooms, six debriefing classrooms and six control rooms, according to Audrey Holtzman, a College of Nursing spokesperson.

The demolition of the original 1973 College of Nursing building finished in May. Construction on the new simulation center and renovations to the rest of the college will be completed in spring 2026.

The expansion will increase the College of Nursing’s undergraduate enrollment capacity by 500 students, according to the USF Health website.

Over 750 students will graduate from the undergraduate nursing program every year by 2028, a 200% increase over five years, according to Holtzman. 

The potential higher graduation rate as a result of the expansion would help address Florida’s critical nursing shortage, Menon said. 

In March 2023, the International Council of Nurses released a report that called for the worldwide shortage of nurses caused by the pandemic to be treated as a global health emergency. 

A 2023 workforce report by the Florida Hospital Association found that even though fewer nurses are leaving their jobs and more nursing jobs are filled compared to pandemic numbers, the situation remains concerning.  

The goal is to make the new lab a risk-free environment where students can make mistakes, according to Johairis Ayala-Falcón, assistant director for the Center of Experiential Learning and Simulation. 

The simulation lab, the main addition to the college of Nursing, will be named the Tampa General Hospital USF Health College of Nursing Simulation Lab after the hospital’s $4.4 million investment.

“It’s going to allow students to have the necessary space and resources to have a better learning experience,” Ayala-Falcón said.

Sophomore Anh Nguyen, who is on the pre-nursing track, said she plans to join the program next fall. She said the new simulation lab will not only be helpful to learn the practical side of nursing, but also the language used in hospitals.

“As an international student, sometimes you get problems learning the language here, especially the medical terms,” Nguyen said. “I think a new simulation lab will help us a lot in learning before interacting with real patients.”

Even though he will have graduated by the time the lab opens, senior nursing student Patrick Chui said he is excited about the renovations and the prestige it will bring to USF’s nursing program. 

“It’s very good to see our partners and other people in the community recognize USF Health as one of the larger and stronger schools for creating healthcare providers,” Chui said.

The renovation is “very satisfying” because it will ensure that USF continues to contribute to the number of nurses entering the industry in Florida,” Chui said.

Menon said she finds it “incredibly exciting” to witness students fully commit to nursing as a profession and make the transition into practice through USF.

“It makes me very excited about the future of our profession and about the USF College of Nursing’s contribution to mitigating the nursing shortage in Florida,” Menon said.