ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The University of Central Florida nursing students began classes today in the newly opened Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion on Lake Nona Boulevard, a facility designed to help address the nursing shortage.
The pavilion will allow UCF to graduate an additional 150 nurses each year, significantly increasing the number of healthcare professionals entering the workforce.
Funded by $43 million from the State of Florida and over $29 million from private donors, the facility aims to directly benefit Central Florida communities.
“This feels like a hospital with the actual beds and devices you use and curtains, and therefore it feels like it more simulates what they’ll encounter when they go into the clinical setting,” said Sharon Tucker, Dean of the College of Nursing.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of the Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion, which is part of UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Campus in Lake Nona.
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