Samford University’s Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing has received a federal grant designed to help ease a national shortage of nursing educators.
The $655,000 grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, will provide loans for graduate and doctoral students pursuing an advanced degree with the intent to serve as faculty in a school of nursing.
Students who participate in the Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) for master’s or doctoral degree programs can have up to 85 percent of the loan forgiven in exchange for service as full-time nursing faculty members at an accredited school of nursing.
Currently 55 Samford nursing graduate students receive funds from the loan program. Students can continue to receive loans as long as they maintain good academic standing, explained Jane S. Martin, associate dean of Samford’s Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing.
The loan program was approved by Congress in 2002, and Samford was one of the first 55 nursing schools from across the U.S. to receive funds.
“Over the past eight years, Samford’s grant amount has increased each year as our nursing program has grown,” Martin said. “The 2010–11 grant is exponentially larger than any of the previous years, and we are incredibly grateful.”
Samford is among the top seven institutions nationally in the amount of grant funds received for the 2010–11 grant.
To date, Samford has received more than $1.25 million in NFLP grants. (SU)
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