Funds to Help Heal State Nursing Shortage
By Jeff Raymond, The Oklahoman
Jun. 10–Five registered nurses received grants for online graduate study to help ease the rural nursing shortage.
The $10,000 scholarships from the Oklahoma Health Care Workforce Center are the first of 10 such awards to help nurse educators earn master’s degrees.
The Oklahoma Hospital Education and Research Foundation Trust, part of the Oklahoma Hospital Association, is one of 11 U.S. groups to receive funding in the second year of a national $10 million initiative to ease the nursing shortage.
The Oklahoma program got a two-year grant of $250,000, to be combined with a $125,000 local match.
A 2006 report from the Oklahoma Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development cited a lack of nursing instructors as a key factor in the state nursing shortage.
Connie Hunt already had enrolled in the University of Oklahoma program when she received her scholarship.
‘Philosophy for lifelong learning’ “It’s just kind of my philosophy for lifelong learning and furthering my degree,” she said.
The 24-year nurse teaches licensed practical nurse students at Indian Capital Technology Center in Stilwell.
“It just kind of made things more real to me that this is the direction I need to go,” she said.
Hunt’s graduate study will take five semesters.
Alan Adams, president and chief executive of Memorial Hospital in Stilwell, said the nursing program at Indian Capital requires half of its full-time faculty members to have a master’s to remain accredited. Hunt, he said, is doing her part to meet the standard.
“There is no doubt in my mind that she will persist to make a difference in the lives of those she continues to guide and direct,” he said.
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