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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Keith McCall State
Rep. Todd Eachus |
  
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McCall & Eachus: State grants will help nursing students pay for school
HARRISBURG, July 4 – State Reps. Keith McCall, D-Carbon, and Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said the Pennsylvania Higher Education Foundation has granted nearly $13.5 million in Nursing Education Grants for the 2008-09 academic year.
"This funding is essential to helping nursing schools increase their recruitment and retention rates, which in turn, provides more qualified nurses for the citizens of the Commonwealth," McCall said. "It’s important to continue assisting students and nursing schools because nurses are really on the front lines of fighting for the health of our citizens."
"Financial assistance will be distributed statewide to support the creation of class space for new nursing students and more nursing educators to get new nurses on the job to fill some of the slots left behind by retiring nurses and nurses who have left the profession," Eachus said. "This will help fix our nursing shortage, just like the legislation we passed to prohibit hospitals and other health-care facilities in the state from forcing nurses to work overtime – legislation awaiting action in the Senate."
The lawmakers said that Licensed Practical Nurse and Registered Nurse programs at 127 Pennsylvania schools of nursing will receive a total of $10.4 million, while 35 graduate schools of nursing will share $3 million in grant funding.
The foundation has contributed more than $66 million through its various programs in support of nursing students since 2003. The PHEF Nursing Education Grant Program was created to help reverse the state's nursing shortage by generating non-taxpayer supported funding, which is otherwise unavailable to schools of nursing.
In addition to the funding for the Nursing Education Grants, the PHEF board approved more than $1 million to provide awards through the Dr. Edna McKenzie Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students program. Ninety-seven Pennsylvania schools of nursing will each receive $10,310 in scholarship money.
PHEF was created five years ago for the purpose of providing financial support to help students afford their nursing education. The foundation currently offers numerous aid programs for students, which can be found by visiting www.higheredfoundation.org or http://futuresinnursing.org.
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