Money Flowing Into NP and PA Training

Online, October 28, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The US Department of Health and Human Services announced $320 million in grants as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aimed at strengthening the country's healthcare workforce. These grants focus on increasing the number of primary care clinicians - including nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) - to reach Americans who reside in areas where the primary care physician shortage has hit the hardest.

MORE GRANTS FOR NP AND PA STUDENTS
In the past month, institutions around the country have received federal grants to educate more NPs and PAs. To name just a few: the University of New England has been awarded a $990,000 federal grant to expand its PA program, and Florida State University College of Nursing has received a $1.4 million grant to increase full-time enrollment and accelerate the graduation of family NPs.

These grants were awarded through the Expansion of Physician Assistant Training (EPAT) program, which allocated $30.1 million to train 28 PA programs over 5 years and the Advanced Nursing Education Expansion (ANEE), which will make $31 million available to about 40 schools to increase the number of nursing students. The student award under each program will be $22,000 per year for 2 years. Additionally, ANEE grantee institutions are eligible to fund new students or convert part-time students to full-time, further accelerating the number of practicing NPs.

Ten nurse-managed health clinic grantees will receive $14.8 million over 3 years to operate primary care clinics for underserved populations and to train NP students. These clinics help address the primary care shortage two-fold: by providing primary care and wellness services to underserved areas and by acting as training grounds for new NPs. Over 3 years, approximately 900 NPs will be trained at these clinics and more than 94,000 patients will be served.

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