TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — "So as far as 'in demand' this is one of those careers that's in demand across the nation," says Tallahassee Community College provost Calandria Stringer.
A demand now being met with more help through the state legislature. The $825,000 grant will help the college hire double the number of staff members and expand their simulation center. The nursing program will now be able to admit 130 students instead of 67. With plans to add 10 additional staff members.
Stringer says the expansion is needed to help meet the growing demand for people in the nursing field.
"It's really grown as far as the need in our local community. And so that's what we're about, community. We want to help the local community, so we want to put out more nurses," says Stringer.
Also playing into the demand of the pandemic. While we've seen nurses leave due to Coronavirus— we've seen the need for people in this profession increase in our communities.
"You see a huge creation of jobs that we've never seen before when you look at the vaccine clinics. You look at the testing sites. All of that activity never existed prior to covid," says Ryan Smith.
Smith is the Chief Clinical Officer at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. While we're more than two years into the pandemic, he says the strain of nurses is even greater.
