Nursing Scholarships
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The American Nursing Association published a comprehensive report on the state of nursing as it stood in every state in the Union.
The report served to emphasize the increasing depletion of the nation's nursing pool due to a number of factors.
There has been a disgraceful lack of funding across public and private sources and a general malaise in enthusiasm for the profession as a whole. The report showed that 38 states at the time had vigorously established state-funded nursing scholarships and grant programs intended to address their particular shortages.
In 2001 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a large stable of federal money that was dispersed among nearly 100 colleges and universities in the United States. The generous grants were administered to key nursing programs and designed to address a number of issues:
- help shore up flagging nursing programs
- provide much needed funds for new facilities
- provide money to hire more well-trained nursing faculty
Because of well-publicized reports, professional nursing organizations, such as the American Nursing Association (ANA) and other active political voices, many colleges and universities with nursing programs have built up generous scholarship and grant funds for both undergraduate and graduate nurses.
Undergraduate Nursing Scholarships
Undergraduate nursing programs include those for Licensed Practical Nurses (or Vocational Nurses), and Registered Nurses with either a 2-year or 4-year degree. Many vocational and technical or community colleges also feature Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) programs that are designed to train a basic, front-line nursing assistant work force.
For the aspiring LPN/LVN or RN there are also many programs now designed to offer coursework that allows migration from one level to the next. For example, an LPN may pursue a program such as an LPN to RN; or an RN to BSN, or Bachelor of Science in Nursing - the four-year RN degree.
Scholarships are available from Federal, state and private organizations for all types of nursing students, including minorities. Also, nursing students who can commit to service after graduation in a "medically underserved" institution or region may often have more scholarship funds available as more and more federal dollars are used to promote underserved areas.
Continue reading about undergraduate programs.
Graduate Nursing Scholarships
The HHS grants a number of years ago were awarded to colleges and universities to address multiple needs. One of those goals of the grants were to increase nursing faculty to teach aspiring nurses, also to train nursing leaders for roles within the public and private sectors of health care. To these ends many graduate nursing programs work overtime to attract and engage undergraduates to pursue higher degrees.
Nurses considering a graduate program are eligible for Federal scholarships, loan repayment programs, state-funded programs and private scholarship funds. Specialties such as Critical Care, Gerontology, Oncology and Trauma Nursing all have professional organizations that support the education of their members, including lucrative scholarship and grant funds.
