New Orlando Center Strengthens Region's Nurses
Across Central Florida, the need for a stronger, more sustainable nursing workforce has never been clearer. Despite recent improvements in retention, the state continues to face a severe and long-term nursing shortage. Florida is projected to be short more than 59,000 nurses statewide, including over 37,000 registered nurses, by 2035, according to state workforce projections. For the communities, hospitals, and health systems that rely on a steady pipeline of trained professionals, this gap represents not just a labor challenge but a structural vulnerability in the region’s healthcare system.
Florida’s challenge is part of a national picture. Each year, the U.S. health system faces around 189,000 RN openings when retirements and exits are considered, while more than 80,000 qualified applications to nursing programs go unaccepted, largely due to capacity constraints such as clinical site availability, faculty shortages, and lab limitations. The takeaway: scale matters. We need more high-quality training seats and a financing model that allows aspiring nurses to finish strong.
Philanthropy becomes truly transformative when it connects multiple related needs into a unified effort, creating the scale and momentum required to make real progress on complex challenges. This month, WGU and Social Finance are celebrating a milestone that reflects this philosophy in action: the opening of the DeLuca WGU Clinical Learning and Simulation Center in Orlando. This site is WGU’s fifth clinical learning and simulation center in the United States, marking a significant national expansion of hands-on training capacity.
This investment is especially meaningful because it comes from The Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation, whose founder’s experience as a nurse grounds the foundation’s philanthropic vision. Knowing firsthand the care nurses provide to their patients, the foundation recognizes the skill, preparation, and confidence required to step into today’s complex clinical environments and the consequences when communities don’t have enough nurses to meet demand.
Built with support from The Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation, the new center spans more than 15,000 square feet and is equipped with high-fidelity simulators, five simulation rooms, two skills labs with 17 patient beds, exam rooms, debriefing suites, and immersive clinical environments.
Student Spotlight: Carla Davis-Buford
A 21-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Carla Davis-Buford carried a long-held dream to become a nurse. Transitioning to civilian life, she needed a pathway that respected her experience, fit her schedule, and delivered the hands-on clinical preparedness required at the bedside. WGU’s hybrid, competency-based prelicensure program combined with immersive practice at the new DeLuca WGU Simulation Center in Orlando gives Carla the structure and confidence to advance toward licensure. Her story reflects thousands of nontraditional learners who are ready to serve their communities if given the training capacity and flexible support to finish.
"The center is set up like a makeshift hospital, and the simulations were similar to what we will see not only in our clinicals, but also in real-life situations in our new careers,” says Carla Davis-Buford. “The instructors were kind, knowledgeable, and provided feedback that was constructive and encouraging. It was overall the best experience I’ve had in any lab I’ve ever attended.”
But solving a shortage requires more than physical infrastructure; it demands rethinking how aspiring nurses finance the final stretch of their education. That’s where the ReNEW Fund (Reinvesting in Nursing Education and Workforce) comes in. Launched by WGU and Social Finance in 2024, the fund provides zero-interest, outcomes-based loans that eliminate upfront cost barriers for students as they complete in-person labs and clinical placements — often the most expensive portion of their training. Employer repayments recycle philanthropic dollars back into the fund, expanding its reach to future cohorts.
Why This Model Works (Infrastructure + Financing)
Capacity at scale: Regional simulation hubs add high-quality clinical training seats where demand is greatest — accelerating the flow of practice-ready nurses.
Completion without debt drag: Last-mile, zero-interest financing helps students cover intensive clinical terms when work hours often must decrease.
Employer-aligned outcomes: Repayment triggered by graduate hiring and retention recycles philanthropic capital and ties financing to real workforce results.
Together, the DeLuca WGU Clinical Learning and Simulation Center and the ReNEW Fund show how philanthropy can strengthen the regional workforce. With more than 530 students enrolled in the ReNEW program nationally, and more than 70 of them in Florida alone, this combined investment is helping ensure that Central Florida is meeting today’s demand and building a resilient, locally trained nursing pipeline capable of supporting its hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community health systems for years to come.
