EBS STAFF
The
revered Montana State University College of Nursing, which is housed in five
campuses across the state, will be expanding with the support of a four-year,
nearly $2.8 million federal grant.
Statistics
have revealed that rural states such as Montana face a shortage of primary and
mental health care providers. The Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Training
grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be
applied to a new College of Nursing program: the Rural Ready Nurse Practitioner
Program, which will strive to fill in the gaps for health care providers in
Montana.
Students
in the new program will complete the current Doctor of Nursing Practice program
as well as supplemental education that addresses working in a rural community
and training in subjects such as advanced life support and advanced trauma life
support. The program’s students will be eligible to receive up to $17,500 per
year for tuition, travel, housing, books, equipment and other expenses over the
course of the time it takes them to earn their doctorate.
“In the
end, the graduates of this program will provide a high caliber of care to
people who live in rural communities and in settings which might have had
difficulty attracting providers to their clinics or keeping them there,” said
Stacey Stellflug, director of the new program. “The College of Nursing is proud
to bring this opportunity to Montana.”
