Seton Hall Merits Two Federal Grants for Nursing Education

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) lauded two grants awarded to Seton Hall University's nursing education grants. The funds come as a result of the federal health care reform bill, the Affordable Care Act.

"We know that the demands on our health care system will only become greater in the coming years, which is why this funding from health care reform is so important," said Pascrell, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the three major committees that wrote the Affordable Care Act. "We already have an impending nursing shortage and it doesn't help that nursing schools are turning away qualified nursing applicants today because they don't have enough faculty members.  These grants go directly to the problem and help us develop our local health care workforce and, prepare us to care for our aging baby boomer generation."

Seton Hall University receives two federal grants for advanced nursing education: $79,910 from HHS' Nurse Faculty Loan program and $20,595 from the HHS' Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship program.

The Nurse Faculty Loan Program helps registered nurses complete their graduate education to become qualified nurse faculty. The program offers partial loan forgiveness for borrowers who graduate and serve as full-time nursing faculty. The Affordable Care Act increased the annual loan limit to $35,500 from $30,000 and established a priority for doctoral nursing students.

The Advanced Education Nursing Traineeships program funds traineeships  for registered nurses enrolled in advanced education nursing programs. Traineeships prepare nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse-midwives, nurse anesthetists, nurse administrators, nurse educators, public health nurses and nurses in other specialties requiring advanced education. The Affordable Care Act removed the 10 percent cap in this program that limited support that could go to nursing students pursuing doctoral degrees.