Florida International University’s National Award-Winning Doctors-to-Nurses Program Expands To Tampa

Diversity-Focused Foreign-Educated Physician-to-Nursing Program Arrives to Four Area
Hospitals Through Long-Distance Technology and Support from HCA West Florida

MIAMI & TAMPA , FL --- 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 nation’s 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.

Four Tampa-Area Hospitals to Benefit From Program

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 program’s 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.

Orlando Model Helped With Program's Move to Tampa

“The idea for this program was sparked here in our own backyard, where we saw potential for solving the nursing shortage within South Florida’s very large and industrious immigrant population,” said Divina Grossman, PhD, RN, ARNP, FAAN, Dean of the CN&HS.  She explained how the idea for the program came about when she noticed so many highly educated former medical professionals were working in health care facilities throughout Miami, but outside of their field of study, such as transporters and orderlies. “After the tremendous success of our pilot class which graduated in 2003, our hope was to see it extend beyond our community and become a viable nursing workforce solution in other parts of the country, especially in communities where workforce immigration issues are just as prevalent,” she continued.

The model for long-distance delivery of the program came with its expansion to Orlando from 2004 – 2006 thanks to federal support from the U.S. Dept. of Labor.  Seven Orlando-area students graduated from the program in April 2006.  “Thanks to the Orlando project, we were able to implement a successful long-distance education system that allows us to literally transmit this program anywhere in the country through new technologies,” said Grossman.

Barbara Hann, Division Director of Organization Development for HCA West Florida learned of the FEPN program and its Orlando expansion, and began efforts to bring it to Tampa.  Said Hann, “Tampa shares many similarities with Miami when it comes to population size, immigrant make-up and health care workforce disparities.  The FEPN program is proving to be highly successful in resolving the nurse staffing needs for sister HCA hospitals in South Florida. Coupled with FIU’s experience and proficiency for delivering the program remotely to other cities – as evidenced by the Orlando project -- we thought it logical and necessary to adopt the program here on the West Coast.”

About the FIU FEPN: First of Its Kind In the Nation; Addresses Diversity in Nursing

FIU’s FEPN program was developed in May 2000 as a brand new approach to addressing the nursing shortage. By tapping an underutilized source of medical skill and knowledge – the underemployed foreign-educated physician living in the U.S. but not practicing medicine – the program can quickly educate and produce more nurses into the health care system.  Students in the program are able to transfer prior medical school credits in select subject matter and proceed through an accelerated 5-semester (or 1 ½-year) program of didactic coursework, clinicals and community projects deigned to facility the transition from medical to nursing practice. This latest class of students represents the fifth contingent since the program’s inception.  The program has produced more than 165 graduates through three graduating cohorts beginning in December 2003, with a fourth cohort of 60 students slated for graduation in April 2007.

Not only does the FEPN immediately address the nursing workforce shortage, but it also promotes diversity in nursing as well.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current U.S. population is comprised 30% of minority groups.  Additionally, minorities will make up 90% of the total population growth from 1995 – 2050.  Here in Florida, minorities comprise 32% of the population, while only 18% of Florida’s nurses are representative of ethnic groups.  Because these FEPN students come from foreign countries, primarily Central and South America and the Caribbean, the program also serves to increase minority representation and diversity in the nursing workforce, especially in serving both South Florida’s and the Tampa Bay region’s highly diverse population.

FEPN Brings Professional and Personal Success

The program is considered a major success by hospitals.  Facilities employing FEPN graduates are extremely pleased with the caliber of these nurses, who have once again been able to practice in a health care profession, and by the FIU College of Nursing which has found an innovative and viable way to educate more nurses.

From the graduates' perspective, the FEPN program is providing them with personal and professional sense of accomplishment as well as economic stability, and many cases, improvement.  Through the FEPN, these graduates can once again successfully practice in health care professions, as they had original set out to do in their former country, and not have their medical skills, knowledge and proficiencies go to waste.  In many cases, these students find that the nursing profession here in the United States is not just comparable to, but perhaps even more gratifying than their former medical careers because of the tremendous amount of autonomy and responsibility nurses are given to care for patients. They have also found that the opportunities for professional and economic advancement provided by the nursing profession are beyond their initial expectations of the profession.

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About the FIU College of Nursing & Health Sciences: Established in 1982, the School of Nursing at Florida International University (FIU) was elevated in October 2006 into the College of Nursing & Health Sciences.  It is the second-largest producer of nursing professionals in the State, offering undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, baccalaureate completion and specialty programs in nursing education.  The College is fully accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, the Florida State Board of Nursing and the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs.  Based in Miami, Florida, the College of Nursing & Health Sciences is a part of Florida International University, a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution with a Carnegie Foundation classification as a doctoral, research extensive university. FIU has ranked among the top 100 public national universities by U.S. News & World Reports.