In June 2022, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, approved $33 million in the FY 2022-23 budget for the USF Health College of Nursing to expand its infrastructure and current footprint on USF’s Tampa campus with enhanced simulation training space.

In September 2023, Tampa General Hospital announced its investing $4.4 million over six years. The funding supports the planning, construction, and implementation of a brand new lab, which will be named the Tampa General Hospital USF Health College of Nursing Simulation Center. It will include 12 clinical examination rooms, four simulation learning labs, a multipurpose learning lab, six high-fidelity simulation rooms, six debriefing classrooms and six control rooms. Simulated scenarios will enable nursing students to practice vital signs and patient safety, transitions of care, medicine administration safety, sepsis identification, communication with patients and family teaching, health assessment skills, prioritization of care, recognition of deteriorating patients and calls for help.

By 2027, the USF Health College of Nursing will graduate approximately 315 undergraduate nurses each year, a roughly 200% increase over the five years. Through extensive partnerships with local and regional hospitals and health care systems, the college can provide practice-based training and confidently route new graduates to employment, fulfilling the critical need for nurses in Florida.