(The Center Square) — The Sunshine State will invest more in nursing education to bolster the state’s growing health care demands and ensure Floridians can access care.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that nursing education will receive a significant boost in funding to offset Florida’s facing health care worker shortage in the coming years. Florida has placed a strong emphasis on workforce training over recent years and nursing education has become a top priority.

“We understand there’s a lot of different specializations, not every nursing pathway is the same, there are some that require training more than others, some of course at our state colleges, but also at our state universities,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis stated there are over 3 million registered nurses currently in Florida, but the need to produce more qualified nurses continues to grow.

“A couple years ago, I approved $125 million for the creation of two initiatives to support nursing programs, as well as their health care partners across the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “So, we started with $100 million to establish what we call the Pipeline Program – prepping institutions, programs, employers and learners through incentives for nursing education.”

DeSantis noted that the goal of these programs was to award colleges and universities that provide nursing education and reach a certain level of achievement. Another $25 million was allocated to the Line Fund Program to recruit healthcare professionals to teach within Florida’s colleges and universities.

“The funding for these two programs was renewed in full in 2023 and this year, we did not only an approval but we added $5 million for the lines programs,” DeSantis said. “So we now have $130 million in our current fiscal year going to both of these initiatives.”

Close to $400 million has been invested into nursing education since 2022, according to DeSantis, who added that other states are not investing as much into nursing education as Florida.

Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said the state needs more nurses as its population continues to grow.

“Gov. DeSantis saw there was a need for more nurses, especially coming out of the COVID pandemic and decided to act,” Diaz said. “Since 2022 when these programs were created, he has signed more than $380 million in funding his Line and Pipeline Programs…The funding has created an immense opportunity for those seeking a career in the medical field.”