UCF is pleased to announce the Helene Fuld Health Trust (Fuld Trust) has committed a $5.5 million gift to the College of Nursing’s new education and teaching facility in Lake Nona. This funding will specifically support the creation of the state-of-the-art simulation center in the new building, a critical component to education and innovation.
“The Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation, Technology, Innovation and Modeling (STIM) Center at UCF exemplifies our mission to support the education of nursing students,” says Robert Campbell, vice president of Trust & Fiduciary Services at HSBC, who oversees the trust. “Simulation is a critical component to nursing education and will continue to be in the future, and we’re proud to make this investment to strengthen nursing skills and improve the welfare of our communities.”
The new home of the College of Nursing will sit on the 50-acre property already home to the UCF College of Medicine and the UCF Lake Nona Medical Center.
The STIM Center will be a centerpiece in the new facility, occupying over 12,000 assignable square feet. The two main components of the STIM Center will be a Virtual Hospital and Clinical Skills Exam Suite. The Virtual Hospital will be heavily used by students across multiple clinical courses and programs and will include student queuing, prebriefing and debriefing spaces, flexible simulation rooms, and specialty virtual reality rooms. The Clinical Skills Exam Suite is made up of several individual rooms outfitted with exam tables, patient diagnostic tools and audio-visual recording systems.
The STIM Center at UCF’s College of Nursing is accredited by the Society of Simulation in Health Care for its educational excellence. The STIM Center is also one of nine simulation programs worldwide — and only one in Florida — to earn the new Healthcare Simulation Standards Endorsement from the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning. The international endorsement recognizes the UCF STIM Center for the high quality of simulation experience, the expertise of our faculty and staff, and our commitment to give opportunities for all to earn success across all simulation.
This recognition is also for our commitment to innovation in the field, as it regularly incorporates new technologies, such as augmented, virtual and mixed reality, into simulation learning experiences. The new facility will triple the existing research and clinical lab space and will enable the College of Nursing to leverage its internationally recognized expertise in healthcare simulation and achieve its vision of serving the global community as a leader in innovative nursing education.
“We are extremely grateful to the Helene Fuld Health Trust for their continued support,” says UCF College of Nursing Dean Mary Lou Sole. “With this generous new gift, UCF will build upon our strong leadership in simulation education, innovation and research and continue to grow a Knight nurse workforce to provide skilled, compassionate care in Central Florida and beyond.”
About the Helene Fuld Health Trust
The Helene Fuld Health Trust is the nation’s largest charitable trust devoted exclusively to nursing education, and has been a supporter of the College of Nursing for nearly two decades. Over this time, Fuld Trust has donated $1.2 million to support an endowment for second-degree nursing students — these are students who change careers and return to school to join the frontline as nurses. To date, this endowment has supported over 50 UCF students with scholarships. UCF is grateful to the Helene Fuld Health Trust for their support of future Knight nurses.
Helene Fuld Health Trust joins Dr. Phillips Charities, the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation, Parrish Medical Center, the State of Florida and the VNA Foundation in supporting the new building.
About the New UCF College of Nursing Building
The new College of Nursing building is a much-needed investment for the region and the state, both of which are facing a critical healthcare worker shortage.
UCF currently graduates more newly licensed RNs annually than any other institution in the State University System, with approximately 260 Knight nurses entering the workforce each year. Almost all of them — 85% of the 14,000 nursing alumni — live and work in Florida.
Last year, the College of Nursing added 100 students beyond its usual enrollment to help keep pace with the state’s demand for new nurses. UCF’s College of Nursing is working to increase capacity to educate more BSN-prepared graduates eligible for RN licensure annually and to growing our graduate nursing programs, with a focus on educating more faculty to teach in programs across our community. The new building is needed for the additional enrollment growth, and when complete, the 90,000-square-foot building will be large enough for the college to increase admits by at least 50% to make a much bigger impact in helping to alleviate the state’s nursing shortage.
UCF continues to seek philanthropic investments in the new building, as we near our goal of raising $70 million needed to break ground on the College of Nursing for the future. The new facility is slated to open at Lake Nona in 2025-26. The building will join the College of Medicine, UCF Lake Nona Hospital and UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center in an Academic Health Sciences Center that brings together students and faculty from many different disciplines.
