Usha Menon, Dean, USF Health – College of Nursing
In an interview with Invest:, Usha Menon, dean of USF Health – College of Nursing, said that Tampa Bay’s robust healthcare ecosystem offers unparalleled opportunities for nursing education and workforce development. “Having access to multiple large, highly regarded healthcare systems allows us to offer leading-edge education, not only in the classroom through didactic instruction but also through clinical experiences.”
What aspects make the Tampa Bay healthcare ecosystem an ideal location for the College of Nursing to thrive?
Tampa Bay has been incredibly valuable to the College of Nursing because of its large and dynamic healthcare ecosystem. Being one of the largest nursing schools in Florida, we must partner with multiple hospitals out of sheer necessity. At the undergraduate level, we train students to be generalists, not specialists, so it would be very limiting to only work with pediatric hospitals or facilities focused solely on the elderly or palliative care. Our students must be prepared to manage patients across the spectrum — from emergency and urgent care to long-term hospital stays, surgeries, and ICU care. Having access to multiple large, highly regarded healthcare systems allows us to offer leading-edge education, not only in the classroom through didactic instruction but also through clinical experiences. Many of the professionals at these hospitals also serve as our clinical or mental health faculty. Furthermore, these partnerships create pipelines to employment, with most of our students receiving job offers upon graduation. We deeply value this because we want to retain these graduates locally; when I need care for myself or my family, I want to know a well-trained graduate is taking care of us. Building and maintaining these relationships help ensure that outcome.
What strategies are you implementing as the college looks to expand?
At this time, we are not expanding on the undergraduate side; we’ve reached our peak for now and have fulfilled our commitments to the legislature. Our current focus is academic excellence — ensuring students are well-educated and graduate successfully. We’re also facing space constraints; we are at capacity in our buildings. One of the major challenges across nursing education nationally, and particularly in Florida and Tampa Bay, is the shortage of nursing faculty, with almost an 8% faculty labor shortage. Accreditation guidelines require a low student-to-faculty ratio, limiting our ability to bring in more students. In clinical settings, we maintain a 10-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio. So, this year, our focus is squarely on academic excellence — making sure every student graduates well-prepared for the workforce.
Nationally, undergraduate nursing program enrollment has dropped in some states, but fortunately, we haven’t seen that here yet. Tampa Bay continues to be a top choice for nursing students. On the graduate side, however, we are planning for growth, particularly in areas like primary care, where the need is critical. There are large “primary care deserts” in this country where timely care is hard to access, and our large Family Nurse Practitioner program is designed to help fill those gaps. We’re also working to cross-train students in pediatric and psychiatric mental health to increase their versatility. Mental health services are now often delivered in primary care settings, and many providers aren’t equipped for that. Starting this fall, we’ll admit our first students into the new psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program, and we’re excited to collaborate with area hospitals to launch it successfully.
Additionally, we are introducing certificate programs and micro-badging options for nurses who want additional education beyond their bachelor’s degrees but aren’t ready for full graduate studies. Topics like sustainability and healthcare’s carbon footprint are areas where nursing can lead. Nurses touch every corner of the hospital, making them ideally positioned to drive change. Nationally, graduate enrollment has been declining, and that’s a priority focus for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. We need to find ways to encourage more people to pursue advanced degrees and take advantage of available funding sources like Title VIII and the Nurse Faculty Loan Program.
Could you talk a bit about these challenges and your thoughts on the affordability of healthcare?
It’s a real challenge. Medicare reimbursement rates are declining, and safe, quick access to healthcare is becoming harder to find. As a result, people often end up in urgent care or emergency rooms when they really should be treated through primary care. One of our College of Nursing strategies to serve the community and give students real-world experience has been launching a mobile health clinic — the Mobile Nurse Medical Clinic. For the past two years, we’ve been offering free primary care to anyone, regardless of insurance status. We started with five sites and have expanded to 13, serving over 1,700 patient visits and 1,100 unique patients.
The need in the community is overwhelming. This program is currently funded by a federal grant, but we are actively seeking ways to sustain it. It serves a dual purpose: providing vital primary care access and offering our students critical learning experiences about healthcare disparities. If you’re an hourly worker, taking four hours off for a healthcare appointment is often impossible, which leads to worsened health outcomes. By bringing healthcare directly to places like the Metropolitan Ministries, the Salvation Army, and Lutheran Family Services, we meet patients where they are.
Nationally, we report our data to a mobile clinic dashboard. Based on our data, we’ve prevented 358 emergency room visits, saving the healthcare system approximately $12.2 million. Over 150 students have participated in this initiative, both undergraduate and graduate. This experience helps them see beyond textbook healthcare; they learn firsthand how poverty and social factors impact patient care. We hope that when they encounter patients struggling with medication adherence or missed appointments in the hospital setting, they ask, “What’s happening in this patient’s life?” rather than labeling them as “non-compliant.” Our students are learning how to integrate social determinants of health into patient care planning, a crucial skill given that over 50% of health outcomes are influenced by these factors.
Looking ahead, what do you see for the future of healthcare in the region?
I think we’re moving healthcare out of hospitals and into patients’ homes. There’s a strong push for hospital-at-home programs — Tampa General Hospital and others are leading the way. Historically, nursing education has focused on acute hospital settings like the OR or ICU, but now we must shift our mindset. Technology — including AI — allows us to safely monitor and care for patients at home. Nurses must become more involved with technology and data-driven decision-making.
I’m currently working with a colleague from North Texas on a grant focusing on how to teach nursing students to use AI appropriately in patient care. AI is integrated into every aspect of healthcare now, and we must equip nurses to harness it effectively.
Could you share your outlook for the College of Nursing and your top priorities over the next two to three years?
Our new building and simulation center will open in May 2026, and we’re excited about the opportunities it will bring. We’ll be able to balance hospital clinical rotations with state-of-the-art simulation education, enhancing student learning without overburdening hospital systems. Our main priorities are to continue serving the Tampa Bay region, retain our graduates locally, and address critical gaps in healthcare that we identify through ongoing community engagement.
