New Grant Will Help UM-Flint Train More Doctorally Prepared Nurses

A new grant will help UM-Flint increase the number of doctorally prepared nurses.

Recently, through the efforts of Graduate Nursing Program Director Connie Creech, UM-Flint obtained nearly $668,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration for Advanced Education Nursing Traineeships (AENT). The grants will be disbursed over the next two years to graduate nursing students.

The purpose of the AENT program is to increase the number of advanced education nurses trained to practice as primary care providers and/or nursing faculty to address the nurse faculty shortage. In some cases, the shortage has inhibited nursing schools from educating the number of nurses needed to meet local, state, and national demand. Grant funding for traineeships will pay all or part of the costs of the tuition, books, and fees of the UM-Flint program of advanced nurse education, and the reasonable living expenses of the individual during the period for which the traineeship is provided.

"I am committed to finding grants and scholarship monies for registered nurses to become Nurse Practitioners. This grant will assist many of our students who are economically disadvantaged, and those that are working full-time to pay for their education," said Creech. "Currently, 35% of our past graduates work in underserved areas and in health professional shortage areas. This funding will increase this percentage and serve to expand the primary care workforce in Michigan."

Nurse Practitioners deliver primary care services that include health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses.

"Research has demonstrated that students who have clinical learning opportunities with underserved groups are more likely to seek employment delivering primary care services to medically underserved and minority populations after graduation,"  according to Marge Andrews, director of the UM-Flint Department of Nursing. "UM-Flint currently has more than 200 students in master's and doctoral programs that prepare nurses to become the next generation of family, adult-gerontology, psychiatric/mental health, and acute care nurse practitioners."