OU unveils two grants worth $2.7 to advance nursing education

Aug. 4—The University of Oklahoma has received two federal grants to encourage nurses to go back to school.

The Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing is the recipient of the Nursing Faculty Loan Program and Oklahoma Workforce Innovations in Nursing grants from the Health Resource and Service Administration, an appendage of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Between the two, the grants are worth $2.7 million.

Melissa Craft, associate dean for clinical affairs, outreach and practice innovation at the OU College of Nursing, is the principal investigator for the NFLP grant, which will provide loans to nursing students who want to continue their studies.

The grant will also forgive 85% of the loan upon completion.

"We give loans to students who are pursuing a research doctorate, PhD in nursing, or a doctor of nursing practice that prepares them to be clinicians, or advanced practice nurses," said Craft.

She said graduating students must either teach full-time, part-time at an accredited school or work as an advanced practice nurse to be forgiven the 85% of the loan.

Both grants only apply to nurses who have minimally received a bachelor's degree in nursing.

"In order to get into the graduate program and become a nurse researcher or become a nurse clinician, you have to already have to be a registered nurse, and you already have to have a bachelors of science in nursing," Craft said.

Julie Hoff, dean of the OU College of Nursing, said the grants come in response to a nursing crisis in Oklahoma.

"Improving access to graduate nursing education addresses two critical nursing workforce needs in Oklahoma: 1 increases the number of nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists in rural communities, thus improving access to care, and 2. increases the number of nurses prepared to be faculty in Oklahoma nursing programs," said Hoff.

She said over 59% of Oklahoma's population — compared to 32% nationally — live in a designated primary care Health Professional Shortage Area, according to the State Department of Health.

At a February OU Board of Regents meeting, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said the university was taking steps to increase access to nursing.

"This isn't theoretical. It isn't imaginary. But we know across the state that the pandemic has revealed a fault line that we have, which is there are not enough nurses in this nation to care for our people, and the impacts are fundamental and real," he said. "People are literally dying because there aren't enough nurses to take care of their patients."

The Oklahoma Workforce Innovations in Nursing, worth $2.5 million, will pay for tuition, fees, scholarships, and travel to one conference for 24 students who are seeking to study a graduate degree in nursing or are training to become an advanced practice nurse.

"They can be one of three types of advanced practice nurses: they can be an adult geriatric clinical nurse specialist, a family nurse practitioner, or a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner," said Amy Costner-Lark assistant dean for academic affairs for the OU College of Nursing.

The stipulation for this grant is that students must perform up to 50% of their clinical rotations in rural or underserved communities, according to Costner-Lark.

"The purpose is so we can bring in more providers in rural and underserved communities in Oklahoma," she said. "We know that if we expose them to clinical rotations in rural and underserved areas, they are more likely to seek employment there after they graduate. We're trying to increase the workforce of advanced practice nurses in these areas."

To apply, students have to be admitted to one of the three eligible programs, have a cumulative GPA of 3.0, and have an active nursing license with no restrictions.

The program will last for three years, after which OU would have to reapply for more grant money.

Currently, 225 students attend the nursing graduate program.

Craft said these grants are important because many nurses in Oklahoma want to continue their education, but can't because of life barriers.

"For many of these individuals, one of the barriers is financial. A lot of the population we are talking about are people that are already in the workforce," Craft said. "They already have responsibilities and families. To be able to even pause working or have the money to pay the tuition, fees, books, and even a laptop, without having assistance would be something they can't do."