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Pursuing a nursing degree in West Virginia just got a little easier for students from rural counties and areas experiencing a shortage of health professionals.
An award of $291,403 will go to the WVU Medicine Center for Nursing Education, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Monday.
“This is a program that’s going to help the Mountain State workforce and going to make sure that it can expand nursing education across West Virginia,” Morrisey said at a press event. “It’ll help here in Wheeling, it’ll help in Morgantown, it’ll help in Berkeley County.
The funds will be used to help cover tuition and fees, academic services and other support for students from rural counties including Hancock, Ohio, Marshall, Tyler, and Wetzel.
Those students will commit to working in healthcare where nursing vacancies and turnover rates are highest.
“Expanding nursing education opportunities in the northern and eastern panhandles is essential to increasing access and creating pathways to stable, well-paying healthcare jobs for residents of these regions,” WVU Medicine’s chief nursing executive Melanie Heuston said.
She said the statewide nursing vacancy rate is 17.5%, and while WVU’s vacancy rate for registered nurses is 13%, that still represents about 1,000 vacancies statewide.
“These trends reinforce the critical need for sustained investments in nurse recruitment and retention and continued workforce development initiatives,” Heuston said.
The award made through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is expected to create capacity for roughly 100 more nursing students each year. Morrisey’s office said in a press release that additional RHTP awards will be announced as part of a strategy to strengthen the healthcare workforce, expand access to care, and improve health outcomes.