The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies has been awarded nearly $928,000 in grants for undergraduate and graduate students.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will provide $586,341 to fund undergraduate pre-licensure students in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs. Students who demonstrate high financial need and meet other requirements of the grant can be awarded 50 percent of the costs of tuition with the scholarships during their program as long as they continue to meet the requirements for full-time enrollment, GPA and progression.
“The availability of these scholarship funds for our nursing students will support their full attention to the academic and time demands of the nursing curriculum,” said Ann Cary, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies. “The aim of the grant is to award these scholarships to sophomore, junior and senior nursing students and to increase the retention rate among students who meet requirements.”
In the past academic year, more than 60 students benefitted from these scholarships, and 18 seniors in the scholarship program graduated.
The second grant is also from HRSA, which awarded $307,695 for a loan forgiveness program for doctoral students who agree to assume faculty positions at any accredited U.S. nursing school after graduation; UMKC matched that grant with an additional $34,188. The grant amount this year has increased 10 times from the previous year.
To prepare UMKC doctoral graduates to assume faculty positions, each recipient will take six credits of graduate nursing education coursework as part of their required curriculum for the doctoral degree.
“We are so pleased to be recognized for our ability to prepare the nursing faculty of the future through this grant and our outstanding array of nursing education courses,” said Cary, principal investigator on the grant. “With the current and pending nursing faculty shortage in Missouri and the nation, this federal workforce initiative at UMKC School of Nursing and Health Studies will help forge a solution. When faculty positions are filled and expanded, the number of students who can be admitted to schools of nursing can increase, and the quality of the educational experience is enhanced with appropriately prepared faculty.”