Sayid Yasin, 28, comes from a family of nurses including his parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Growing up, he remembers his father, wearing scrubs, coming home from his job as an emergency department nurse in New York City, where he still works today.
Yasin entered college thinking he’d pursue nursing, but grew concerned that he wouldn’t “have the stomach for it.” He bucked tradition and, for five years, helped patients from the comfort of an office, working as an IT consultant for a health care technology company.
Then COVID-19 emerged. As more and more nurses were laid off or left the profession amid low staffing levels, a shortage of personal protective equipment and the crushing stress of a deadly new disease, he decided to join the nursing ranks.
(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
“When I saw that family members, friends of mine were enduring what they were enduring … I really felt like I needed to be there,” he said.
He applied to the University of Central Florida’s Accelerated Bachelor’s in Nursing program and, in early August, joined 67 other career changers and walked across UCF’s stage to receive his degree.
UCF’s accelerated program allows people like Yasin who already have a bachelor’s degree in a different field to obtain a nursing degree in 16 months rather than the typical 21. Nurses in the shorter program complete the same amount of clinical hours and hospitals are eager to hire them, said Kelly Allred, director of both the traditional and second-degree programs.
Other colleges that offer an accelerated nursing program include the University of Florida, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Miami, Keiser University, Florida State University, Jacksonville University, the University of North Florida and the University of South Florida.
UCF’s program has been around for nearly 20 years and is one of the school’s efforts to send more nursing graduates into Central Florida’s workforce amid ever-worsening short-staffing, Allred said.
“Hospitals all over our area are letting us know that they need nurses; they have a shortage,” Allred said. “They would like us to graduate as many nurses as we can in a quality way.”
AdventHealth Orlando has over 140 vacant nursing positions, according to its website; Orlando Health has over 750 openings in the Orlando area; HCA Healthcare Florida has over 200, according to its website.
Some nurses and nurses’ unions note that increasing the number of graduates is just one of many actions that need to be taken to solve the nurse staffing and retention crisis.
In a Thursday opinion piece for Newsweek, Miami registered nurse Rublas Ruiz from the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union advocates for health care corporations and politicians to improve working conditions.
“Experienced caregivers who have risked their lives to save others during Covid-19 are leaving their jobs and communities because of low pay, disrespect and disregard for their well-being,” he writes. “The pandemic exposed and exacerbated the issue, but this crisis in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities has been growing for years.”
Florida hospital chains contend they are taking actions to improve working conditions in order to better retain staff.
In the meantime, UCF is helping local health care systems tackle the issue from the other end by churning out new graduates who missed the chance to major in nursing their first time around.
“Coming out of high school, you might not be totally aware of what it is you want to do with your life. So this is a great opportunity for people who have gone through four years of college and then maybe worked for a bit and then decided, now I know,” said Jessica Simmons, assistant dean of students in the College of Nursing.
Surveys of alumni from UCF’s nursing school suggest over 85% of graduated nurses stay in Florida, and 57% live in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Brevard or Volusia counties, said UCF spokesperson Heather Lovett.
Yasin is set to work at AdventHealth Orlando in the intensive care unit after he passes the NCLEX, an exam that nursing graduates take to become licensed. For each of the past three years, at least 98% of graduates of the accelerated program passed the NCLEX, Simmons said.
(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
Proebe Ybañez, 28, also graduated from UCF’s accelerated program this year and plans to stay in Central Florida to work in AdventHealth Orlando’s vascular thoracic progressive care unit.
Like Yasin, she was always interested in nursing and initially chose a different path; she taught chemistry in a low-income community for several years.
During her time as a teacher, she noticed that when students or their family members got sick, students would have to miss school and fall behind in her class, or fail.
“I’m like, ‘I really need you guys to care about what you’re learning,’ but at the same time, that’s not the important part of their life,” Ybañez said. “The important part of their life is their health.”
The pandemic gave her a final push toward pursuing nursing.
“I kept telling my students to follow their dreams, be courageous, be brave enough to venture into the unknown,” she said. “I would say that the pandemic helped me reflect and realize that what I really wanted to do is to be in health care.”
Both Ybañez and Yasin encourage anyone on the fence about a career change to do it.
“If you’re considering a change to a career in nursing, you’ve got a lot of potential to do good in this field,” Yasin said. “I urge whoever’s out there to take that first step.”
ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com; @CECatherman on Twitter
