ORLANDO, Fla. — The demand for more health care workers continues to rise in Central Florida as the population in the area continues to grow. 

What You Need To Know

  • Kris Hysler didn't get into nursing until after the pandemic 

  • UCF has an accelerated second-degree nursing program 

  • New state-of-the-art facility will be built in Lake Nona 

  • Florida Hospital Association projects a shortage of more than 59,000 nurses by 2035

For Kris Hysler, the thought of being a nurse had never crossed her mind until she was caring for her father back in 2019. 

“In March of 2020 he fell and had a brain bleed and so he was in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at AdventHealth Orlando. And I stayed with him for four days and was taking care of him and his nurses were like ‘you should be a nurse.’ And I said, ‘I’m too old to switch careers,' and they said, ‘no you’re not.’” 

At 38, the musical theater major thought the time had come and gone to switch career paths.

“I didn’t think anything of it for a few days, but then when restaurants shut down. I didn’t have a job for the first time in 17 years,” Hysler said.

However, Hysler felt she had other obstacles to get through, like the fact that she was hard of hearing.

“I lost a majority of my hearing during my 20s,” something she thought would completely pause her now goals. “I have a lot of things that help me. My stethoscope hooks up to my phone and amplifies sound, so I don’t just hear the patient’s heartbeat, I can see it,” she explained.

The school has even provided a note taking system for the student.

“So I just record all my lectures and then I send off the recording to the note taker and they send me back bullet points. It’s actually really cool and I’m super thankful,” she said.

Now, Hysler is enrolled in the accelerated second-degree BSN program at UCF’s College of Nursing, knowing she would make a difference not just by helping others, but by combating a nursing shortage in central Florida.

According to the Florida Hospital Association, it projects a shortage of more than 59,000 nurses by 2035.

“We’re doing everything that we can at this moment just to make sure we have enough people coming out,” Hysler said. “This new program will do so much for the school and the workforce. It’s not that there aren’t enough people who want, there is just not enough room.”

Which is why the school is adding a new state-of-the-art facility in Lake Nona to better serve the needs of its students and the growing need for nurses. 

The dean of the school of nursing, Mary Lou Sole, said they are preparing their students for the workforce.

“At some point in our lives, we’re all going to need a nurse,” she said.

The new program will increase the number of nurses that graduate from UCF each year. Last year, the college of nursing added 100 additional students to the program.

“We’re educating advanced practice nurses, leaders, and educators for the future. So our goal is to educate the nursing workforce that could supply the critical needs of Central Florida,” she said.

Sole said the new facility is. “Built for the future, not for now. So that students can use low tech, high tech, augmented reality, virtual reality, all kinds of things to learn so that they are competent and ready practitioners to practice in the workforce.”

UCF has collaborated with multiple companies for the facility in Lake Nona and is partnering with AdventHealth and Orlando Health who pledged $10 million toward the new facility, internships and scholarships — helping students like Hysler. 

“I wish I would have done it sooner. I wish I had known that these things were available, and that there were people out there who really want to help you.”