MSU Nursing program to meet rural needs

EBS STAFF

The revered Montana State University College of Nursing, which is housed in five campuses across the state, will be expanding with the support of a four-year, nearly $2.8 million federal grant.

Statistics have revealed that rural states such as Montana face a shortage of primary and mental health care providers. The Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Training grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be applied to a new College of Nursing program: the Rural Ready Nurse Practitioner Program, which will strive to fill in the gaps for health care providers in Montana.

Students in the new program will complete the current Doctor of Nursing Practice program as well as supplemental education that addresses working in a rural community and training in subjects such as advanced life support and advanced trauma life support. The program’s students will be eligible to receive up to $17,500 per year for tuition, travel, housing, books, equipment and other expenses over the course of the time it takes them to earn their doctorate. 

“In the end, the graduates of this program will provide a high caliber of care to people who live in rural communities and in settings which might have had difficulty attracting providers to their clinics or keeping them there,” said Stacey Stellflug, director of the new program. “The College of Nursing is proud to bring this opportunity to Montana.”