Marion County officials cut the ribbon on the new, AdventHealth Ocala Center for Nursing at the College of Central Florida on Thursday.
During a ribbon cutting ceremony at the college on Thursday, staff, county officials, and nursing students celebrated the state-of-the-art, $20 million, 42,500-square-foot facility.
The nursing center features six classrooms, three skills labs, six simulation rooms, and a testing lab. It is expected to serve more than 300 students pursuing nursing and bachelor’s degrees.
According to the organization, the simulation lab is outfitted with complex figures that can blink, breathe, and speak via a control room just beyond a window where professors can create real-world scenarios for the nurses in training.
The skill labs offer a variety of figures for practices including IV preparation, phlebotomy, and other routine procedures.
The center, which opened for classes earlier this month, is named after the hospital because of a $3 million commitment made by the hospital to the facility in September 2024.
In addition to AdventHealth, funding to construct the new facility also came from the Marion County Hospital District, the Florida Legislature, Marion County Board of Commissioners and other community partners.
In the spring of 2023, the college received a $6.7 million Linking Industry to Nursing Education grant from the Florida Legislature to expand its nursing program.
For more information, visit the nursing program at the College of Central Florida online.