Nursing student scholarships are offered in Modesto area. Where are the applicants?
Golden Valley Health Centers usually see plenty of interest in their annual scholarships awarded to nursing students living in Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin counties.
As of Wednesday, only one person had applied for the $5,000 scholarships, with the April 1 deadline less than two weeks away.
The $25,000 scholarship program gives five scholarships each year to local students enrolled or accepted to a nursing school, whether they are seeking a two-year degree to work as a registered nurse or a bachelor’s degree. Students in a licensed vocational nurse program are also eligible.
The scholarships are offered to students living in Golden Valley’s service area in the three counties.
Golden Valley officials didn’t have an explanation for the lack of interest in the scholarships this year.
Warnings about the dire nursing shortage in California and the nation, and headlines about burned-out nurses leaving for less stressful careers, persisted through the pandemic.
The current status of the shortage and nursing education was summed up in a measured study released by researchers at University of California, San Francisco, in August.
The research team noted a two-year decline in students entering or graduating from nursing schools. But nursing programs in California still have waiting lists and are magnets for a rising number of applications.
The UCSF study reported that veteran nurses have left the workforce or plan to retire or leave in the next two years, increasing a shortage of registered nurses that currently exists. The industry shortage is almost 19,000 full-time registered nurses or a 6% gap between supply and demand.
The researchers were hopeful that nursing program enrollments are picking up and are projected to surpass what they were before the pandemic. That should alleviate the workforce shortage by 2030, the study concluded.
“Shortages of RNs even if short-lived have significant consequences for patients and for health care systems,” the study warned.
Health-care workforce shortages are more pronounced in rural areas like the San Joaquin Valley. The study recommended that hospitals and other health care services increase their efforts to keep nurses and offer good career opportunities for new graduates.
Golden Valley’s scholarship program is named for Flora Martinez, a board member for the nonprofit clinics for 43 years. Martinez respected the nursing profession and believed in the nonprofit health center mission of bringing health care to farm laborers and lower-income residents.
Students seeking a $5,000 scholarship are asked to submit an application form before April 1, along with two letters of recommendation. One requirement is a GPA of 3.0 or higher in high school or college.
Receiving a scholarship doesn’t represent a commitment to work for the safety-net health clinics.
“We would love it if they come to work for GVHC upon graduation, however, it’s not a requirement,” spokeswoman Amy Collier Carroll said in an email.
To apply for a scholarship, send an email to Foundation@gvhc.org.
