The Nursing Shortage Consortium of South Florida has been awarded a $230,000 Health Foundation of South Florida grant to license and implement an interactive online system designed to maximize the use of available clinical teaching opportunities at area hospitals.
“This Health Foundation of South Florida grant will make it possible for the Consortium to work together with the Palm Healthcare Foundation to streamline student clinical rotation scheduling at hospitals from Miami-Dade through the Treasure Coast; maximizing the use of clinical space,” said Jackie Gonzalez, the project’s director and immediate past president of the Consortium. The Palm Healthcare Foundation (PHF) provided a matching grant for the clinical scheduling system in partnership with the Consortium. Nursing programs turn away thousands of qualified applicants each year. Insufficient clinical sites are one of the major barriers to increasing nursing program capacity at community colleges and universities, according to data from the Florida Board of Education and the Florida Center for Nursing. Moreover, Health Resources and Services Administration statistics indicate that Florida faces a severe shortage of registered nurses, with 17,000 unfilled positions projected by 2010. “The contributions from these organizations are critical to our moving forward with this project which provides an innovative and much-needed service,” said Claudia Distrito Consortium president. Last year, a Consortium committee recognized that student clinical training could be better coordinated among area nursing schools and hospitals to create new placement opportunities. At the same time, a PHF committee identified similar concerns. Both organizations agreed to work together to implement a single system in the South Florida and Treasure Coast counties.
