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RiverBlog: 60 Years of Care: ºÚÁÏÍø’s Nursing Program Celebrates a Milestone — and Looks to the Future

Six decades ago, ºÚÁÏÍø made a promise to the Treasure Coast: we will train the nurses this community needs. As the college reflects on the 60th anniversary of ºÚÁÏÍø’s Associate Degree Nursing program, that promise has never been stronger. 

A black-and-white photograph from the mid-1970s shows a nursing instructor demonstrating medical equipment to a group of nursing students in traditional white uniforms and caps gathered around a clinical workstation.
Before simulation labs and digital records, nursing education was built on hands-on instruction and dedication. This 1975 photo captures practical nursing students at Martin Memorial Hospital — part of a long tradition of clinical training that ºÚÁÏÍø has carried forward for 60 years.

Since 1965, thousands of graduates have walked out of this program and into emergency rooms, ICUs, pediatric wards, and community clinics across our region and beyond. Today, when you walk into Cleveland Clinic or Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, there is a very good chance your nurse is an ºÚÁÏÍø graduate — and that they chose to stay right here on the Treasure Coast to serve the community that trained them. 

A Program Built for This Community 

What makes ºÚÁÏÍø’s nursing program truly distinctive is its deep roots in the region it serves. Executive Dean Dr. Patty Gagliano, who leads the college’s Health Sciences Division, describes a program that has grown alongside the community — one where it is not uncommon for a student to walk in and say their parent sat in the same classroom, trained in the same clinical settings, and built a career right here at home. 

Guests and college officials tour ºÚÁÏÍø's newly opened School of Nursing simulation center during a ribbon cutting event, as a faculty member in a white lab coat demonstrates patient care techniques on a high-fidelity mannequin in a state-of-the-art simulated operating room.
A new chapter begins. Guests got their first look inside ºÚÁÏÍø’s state-of-the-art School of Nursing simulation center during the 2023 ribbon cutting, where faculty demonstrated the cutting-edge technology preparing the next generation of Treasure Coast nurses.

“It is a full circle life,” Dr. Gagliano shared on a recent episode of River Talk on ºÚÁÏÍø Public Media. “When you see a parent and a child in our program, graduating and working — that speaks to the quality of what we do and the breadth and depth of who we reach.” 

Professional headshot of Dr. Patty Gagliano, Executive Dean of Health Sciences at ºÚÁÏÍø, posed confidently with arms crossed against a neutral gray background.
Dr. Patty Gagliano, Executive Dean of Health Sciences at ºÚÁÏÍø, has dedicated her career to building a nursing program that serves — and reflects — the community it trains.

John Ramfjord, Senior Development Director at the ºÚÁÏÍø Foundation, has seen that quality firsthand. In his first weeks on the job, he met with healthcare partners across the region and heard the same thing repeatedly: ºÚÁÏÍø nurses are different. 

“The stories I heard about hiring ºÚÁÏÍø nurses meant that they were getting a quality employee,” Ramfjord said. “They weren’t leaving, they were staying. You hear stories all the time of high turnover in nursing and nursing shortages — but this is one of the few places at full capacity, in part because of the quality of students coming out of ºÚÁÏÍø.” 

That reach extends to ºÚÁÏÍø’s state-of-the-art simulation center, located at the College’s Pruitt Campus in Port St. Lucie. The simulation center replicates a real nursing unit with 11 fully equipped rooms, the same alarms, tools, and equipment students will encounter in any acute care facility in the area. Students gain hands-on experience from birth to hospice care — all in a controlled, safe environment — before ever setting foot on a hospital floor. Ramfjord, who has toured nursing programs at colleges and universities across the country, is direct in his assessment. 

“I have seen several other colleges and universities with nursing programs, and they pale in comparison to the resources that we have here for preparing our nurses,” he said. “It is second to none.” 

It is, by any measure, one of the finest nursing training facilities in the state. 

Celebrating 60 Years — and Funding the Next 60 

To mark this milestone, the ºÚÁÏÍø Foundation is launching the 60 for 60 Campaign â€” an initiative inviting the community to give $60 or more in celebration of 60 years of nursing excellence. Every gift will help shape the next generation of nurses, supporting scholarships, student resources, and faculty development. 

An ºÚÁÏÍø School of Nursing student in a white uniform and blue latex gloves practices chest compressions on a patient simulation mannequin in the college's simulation lab, his focused expression reflecting the intensity of hands-on clinical training.
ºÚÁÏÍø School of Nursing student Andrew MacDonald practices life-saving skills in the college’s simulation lab — the same skills he will carry into hospitals and healthcare facilities across the Treasure Coast.

As Dr. Gagliano put it, “Foundation support opens doors — for students to get into the campus, through scholarship, through the resources they need to be successful.” Faculty, she notes, are “the unsung heroes” of nursing education, providing the one-on-one mentoring and guidance that carries students across the finish line from student to nurse. 

Ramfjord sees the campaign as a natural extension of the pride the community already has in this program. “The buy-in is a sense of pride that the community has in the quality of students that ºÚÁÏÍø Nursing produces — and that’s what has allowed the 60 years to continue,” he said. “I’d like to see that continue, which is why we’re having this campaign.” 

To learn more or get involved in the 60 for 60 Campaign before its official launch, contact John Ramfjord at 772-462-7244, or visit . 

Is Nursing Your Path? Find Out April 6th 

Whether you are working a job you do not love, a recent graduate looking for direction, or a CNA or EMT ready to take the next step — ºÚÁÏÍø wants to meet you where you are. 

An ºÚÁÏÍø nursing instructor in a white lab coat leads a small group of nursing students through a hands-on clinical simulation, as the team works together around a patient mannequin in the college's simulation lab. All participants are wearing blue latex gloves and stethoscopes, reflecting the real-world clinical environment the program replicates.
Teamwork is at the heart of nursing. An ºÚÁÏÍø instructor guides students through a collaborative patient care simulation, mirroring the real-world clinical environments they will enter upon graduation.

“It’s not a physical appearance where they all look the same,” Ramfjord noted of ºÚÁÏÍø nursing students. “It’s the internal drive, the internal motivations. The willingness to care is what our nursing students look like.” 

The college is hosting a Nursing and Health Sciences Open House on Monday, April 6th, from 4:30–6:30 p.m. at the Pruitt Campus. Simulation labs will be open, faculty will be on hand, and advisors, financial aid officers, and library services staff will all be available to answer your questions. It is a chance to see yourself in the role — and to see what 60 years of excellence looks like up close. 

Learn more and plan your visit at irsc.edu. 

River Talk is produced by ºÚÁÏÍø Public Media and is available at . The full episode featuring Dr. Patty Gagliano and John Ramfjord is available now.