Through a grant provided by the US Department of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship (AENT), the Georgia College (GC) School of Nursing received $350,000 to fund nurses in their final year of the Family Nurse Practitioner program.
GC’s Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program is a master of nursing degree, and the school of nursing will benefit from help with tuition, fees, books, and a stipend to each student in their final year of the program. Many students work full time while also going to school, so Dr. Sallie Coke, director of graduate nursing programs, co-wrote the grant with Dr. Debby MacMillan to help make graduate degrees more affordable for master’s level nursing students.
The grant will help make a big difference for healthcare in Georgia, which is listed as a top state facing severe physician shortages. According to the United Health Foundation, Georgia was also listed in the bottom third for overall health at number 40 in 2015 rankings. AENT grants are usually provided for health care education in underserved areas of the country, and GC’s Family Nurse Practitioner program falls under that category.
Covering all 34 students in the 2017 FNP graduating class, the AENT grant will help offset the costs to students and their families so that they can afford to pursue advanced degrees. The GC School of Nursing intends to address nursing shortages and poor health by educating more advanced nurse practitioners and providing them with incentives to work in rural and underserved areas after graduating. Students who accept the funding from the AENT grant are required to complete two years of service in high-needs or rural health districts throughout Georgia.