Nearly four years ago, the nursing program at UCF transitioned from a school within the College of Health and Public Affairs (COHPA) and became an independent College of Nursing. But one thing didn’t change—location.
Up until this past summer, the College of Nursing was physically located inside two COHPA buildings and nursing classes were scattered across the entire main campus. Nursing had no building to call its own.
Now, in a strategic move to get the college under one roof, the College of Nursing occupies three of six floors in the University Tower building. The space, previously occupied by the UCF College of Medicine and located in Central Florida Research Park (adjacent to UCF’s main campus), features modern offices and classrooms, a student learning center, computer labs, two break rooms with full kitchens, and several teaching labs for simulation exercises and skill-building.
The move marks the first step toward the college’s long-term goal of joining UCF’s College of Medicine and several prominent clinical partners in the growing “Medical City” and life-sciences cluster at Lake Nona.
“The future is interdisciplinary professional education, in which two or more health professions learn together. Several of the top academic health centers have already taken this approach and research shows patients benefit,” explains Dean Leuner. “Our vision is to create this century’s premier health science campus at Lake Nona. To achieve this, nursing must be physically located with UCF’s other health care disciplines so we can begin educating medical students, nursing students and other health professionals side-by-side.”
