As the nation experiences an acute nursing shortage, Regis College has received two grants from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to increase access and affordability for nursing students and train nursing faculty.
A $990,000 grant for the Nursing Student Loan Program (NSL) will be used to offer loans to graduate nursing students. The funds will provide additional financial resources to support more prospective students obtaining aid in order to earn their graduate degree and enter the workforce.
A second $439,516 grant for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) will offset tuition costs for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) graduates and close the nursing educator gap across the country. Graduates of this program are critical to educating the next generation of nurses. Through the NFLP program, DNP graduates can have up to 85 percent of their loan repayment cancelled over four years while serving as a full-time faculty or preceptor at an accredited school of nursing. NFLP loans of up to $35,000 a year are available for up to five years per student.
The nursing shortage in the U.S. is expected to be between 200,000 – 450,000 registered nurses by 2025, according to Xtelligent Healthcare Media that cites a report from McKinsey and Company. This equates to a 10 to 20 percent nursing gap while the patients needing nursing care continues to rise.
“Through their tireless commitment and delivery of compassionate care, nurses were and remain critical to addressing the greatest public health threat of our time,” said President Antoinette Hays, PhD, RN. “With these federal grants, Regis will continue to educate future nurses and nursing faculty who will in turn educate and prepare future nurses. Since many of our graduates remain in Massachusetts, Regis will make a meaningful and enduring contribution to addressing the nursing shortage in Massachusetts. Having graduated 900 nurses this year alone, Regis is committed to addressing a significant public health challenge by educating advanced degree nursing graduates who elevate the nursing profession as faculty and preceptors.”
“It is wonderful to be able to fund tuition assistance to 92 DNP educators and preceptors during the upcoming academic year,” said C. Andrew Martin, DNP, MS, RN, the Regis College NFLP project director and an associate professor of nursing. “The NFLP program is an example of many ways in which the intellectual capital of Regis addresses significant challenges in society.”
Regis has been the recipient of the NFLP award for more than a decade. Nationally renowned for the Richard and Sheila Young School of Nursing, Regis graduates more than 900 nurses and 40 nurse educators who enter America’s health care workforce each year.
"It has always been my dream to obtain a doctoral degree. I put this dream on hold because I did not want the burden of another student loan,” said Ozo M. Nwabuzor, RN, MSN ’22. “I heard about the Nurse Faculty Loan Program and that Regis College participates in the program and applied. Thanks to the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, I am making my dream a reality and feel better prepared to positively impact the next generation of nurses."
