FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Francis Marion University Health Sciences school received two federal grants that total more than $2 million dollars.
The awards were provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Health Resources and Services Administration.
According to a press release, the award is available through two distinct programs.
Scholarships for disadvantaged students will provide $543,654 in director scholarship aid for tuition and other costs to students in FMU’s Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program this school year.
The Nursing Faculty Loan Program will provide $75,452 in loans for MSN Nurse Educator students. Up to 85 percent of the loans can be forgiven if students serve as full-time faculty at an accredited nursing school for four years after graduation.
The grants will fund 24 students through the disadvantaged students grant and six future nurse educators.
Executive Director of Public Affairs Tucker Mitchell says these programs will help increase the number of qualified nursing faculty who, in turn, are needed to address the nurse shortage across the state.
“We also expect that it will draw new people to the program and that’s really the purpose, people who thought there is no way. They will have a chance to get a masters level degree in one of these nursing practices so the people that will come into this program are those that are nurses right now,” said Mitchell.
Students must complete applications for both programs by Aug. 15.
Applications will be online at http://www.fmunursing.com/ Additional information is available by calling the Department of Nursing at 843-661-1690.
A grand opening of FMU’s Health Sciences complex will be held Thursday August 4 at 10 a.m.
