FLORENCE, SC – Francis Marion University’s School of Health Sciences is the recipient of a two-year federal grant worth more than $1 million that is designed to improve both the quality and availability of healthcare in rural areas of the state. The grant, part of the Health Resources Service Administration’s Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program, will provide scholarship and academic support for students in FMU’s fast-growing Nurse Practitioner program.
The ANEW Program supports innovative academic-practice partnerships to prepare primary care advanced practice registered nursing students to practice in rural and underserved settings through academic and clinical training.
Fifteen full-time and five part-time Family Nurse Practice students will be involved in the program. The grant will assist with their tuition and expenses. It also pays for additional equipment and additional adjunct staff to help oversee the clinical experiences.
Dr. Deborah Hopla, director for FMU’s Nurse Practitioner program, says a number of practice partners in rural areas are already signed on to serve as preceptors for the program. The ANEW grant, says Hopla, just increases momentum for what was already the program’s primary thrust.
In the past two years, FMU’s School of Health Sciences has received five HRSA grants worth more than $5 million. The ANEW grant is the second grant awarded to FMU during HRSA’s most recent grant funding cycle.
