The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded a $300,000 grant to the UNMC College of Nursing to provide financial support to graduate nurse practitioner students from underserved and/or rural areas throughout Nebraska.
The grant, an Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship, is projected to help 14 or more qualified students across Nebraska in the next year, said Karen Grigsby, Ph.D., associate professor in the UNMC College of Nursing and lead person on the project.
The grant’s goal is to increase the number of primary health care providers who can deliver care to individuals and families living in areas that are designated as lacking in primary care physicians or mental health providers.
Dr. Grigsby said adding primary care nurse practitioners in the areas of family health, adult-gerontological health, pediatric health, women’s health, or psychiatric mental health will improve the health status of individuals and families living in these underserved areas.
About one half of the UNMC College of Nursing students who have earned their master’s degrees in nurse practitioner specialties live in rural and/or underserved areas, Dr. Grigsby said. About 80 percent of the graduates stay in Nebraska after graduation, she said.