The Foreign Educated Physician to Nursing (FEPN) program, a revolutionary education initiative pioneered by Florida International University College of Nursing & Health Sciences (FIU CN&HS) in Miami, Florida, expanded to Tampa, Florida with the beginning of Spring semester classes on January 8, 2007.
The FEPN is the nations first-ever education program to transform foreign-educated physicians into nurses through a fast-track, specialized curriculum. Financial support from Palm Harbor-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) West Florida will provide funding for local faculty, full scholarships for up to 15 students (recruited from the Tampa Bay area), and long-distance technology equipment for real-time videoconferencing delivery of the program from Miami to students in Tampa. This latest cohort of students in FEPN is comprised of 48 Miami and 15 Tampa-area candidates, with the program based at the Biscayne Bay Campus (BBC) in North Miami. Both Miami and Tampa students will participate in the program by taking classroom courses together via real-time, interactive videoconferencing between FIU BBC and Largo Medical Center (LMC). LMC will be equipped with long-distance technology through the HCA funds. However, clinical activities for the Tampa student will take place locally at LMC and fellow HCA West Florida facilities Edward White Hospital, Northside Hospital & Heart Institute, and St. Petersburg General Hospital, all located in St. Petersburg. Upon graduation and professional nursing certification, graduates of the FEPN program will enter into multi-year work commitments with the four participating HCA West Florida hospitals. In South Florida, where the program was developed, the majority of the programs 165 graduates are employed as working RNs in local health care facilities through Miami-Dade and Broward counties since the program launched in May 2002.