Nursing Faculty Education Funds

September 08, 2010

BROOKLYN AND PATCHOGUE, NY September 9, 2010 St. Josephs College is pleased to announce that it was the recipient of two grants to support graduate education in nursing through the Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP). These funds will be used to support St. Josephs graduate students who intend to teach in a nursing school following the completion of their coursework. In total, the College received $35,571 from the Health, Resources and Services Administration and an additional $26,876 from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The College will contribute 10 percent, or $6,938 for a total of $69,385.

The Nurse Faculty Loan Program is a federally funded program administered by the Bureau of Health Professions and the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program provides funds to eligible schools of nursing that offer graduate programs to prepare students to become faculty.

This program seeks to correct the severe shortage of nurses by ensuring that there are sufficient faculty to teach in nursing schools across the nation. The lack of nursing faculty is one of the prime contributing factors to this ongoing shortage; last year, over 119,000 qualified applicants were turned away by nursing schools for pre-licensing classes, and much-needed program expansion in undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing schools nationwide were delayed  for want of instructors.

Students receiving these federal loans complete specific coursework to prepare them to assume a nursing faculty role and commit to full-time employment in a nursing program following graduation. The loans support funding for tuition, fees and educational expenses. Recipients may have up to 85 percent of the loan forgiven while serving as a full-time nursing faculty member in an accredited school of nursing.

"This award will allow the College to recruit and retain qualified students by providing funding for graduate study, stated Dr. Barbara Sands, professor of nursing at St. Josephs College. "It will increase the number of qualified nursing faculty to meet current and future needs, which, in turn, will help address the ongoing nursing shortage that imperils our healthcare system.

Learn more about this new program here.