Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry has been awarded a $247,719 federal grant to counter the nation”™s nursing shortage with financial aid for future teachers in the profession.
The grant is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”™ nurse faculty loan program, which aims to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty at the nation”™s colleges and universities so as to train more students to enter the field. The grant award was announced by U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations committee whose congressional district includes parts of Westchester and Rockland counties.
Mercy College officials said the grant will be used to make loans to help registered nurses completing their graduate education to become qualified nurse faculty. Loan recipients who go on to become full-time faculty at an accredited school of nursing may cancel 85 percent of the loan over four years.
“Every day, nearly three million nurses work on the frontlines of our nation”™s health care system. In order to meet growing demand, we need to increase the number of young people who become nurses. We can only do that if we have the educators to train them,” Lowey said in a press release.
Concetta M. Stewart, interim president of Mercy, said the federal financial support “helps increase the number of nurse educators who wish to pursue faculty positions, addresses the nursing shortage, locally and nationally, and helps meet the need to increase access to health care by developing and retaining a diverse, culturally competent health workforce.”
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics last year reported that registered nursing is one of the leading growth occupations that will add jobs in this decade.
