Obama Administration awards $159.1 million in grants for nurses, geriatric care workers

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Aug 7 2010

The Obama Administration awarded $159.1 million in grants for training of nurses and geriatric specialists.

The Washington Post: "The grants, which include new and continuing funding, build on multimillion dollar investments called for under the new health-care overhaul law in order to address a growing shortage of primary care workers." A 2008 report by the Council on Physician and Nurse Supply said schools would need to produce 30,000 nurses annually to offset the shortfall and the looming mass retirement of nurses, 45 percent of whom are 50 or older" (Aizenman, 8/5).

The Hill: "The grants include: $106 million for nursing education (including $42 million to train nurses as primary-care providers and/or nursing faculty); $29.5 million to fund three geriatric education and training programs; and $23.6 million to support Centers of Excellence programs designed to improve the recruitment and performance of underrepresented minority students preparing for careers in healthcare" (Pecquet, 8/5).

Several local newspapers report on grants for specific states.

Star Tribune: "Minnesota schools will receive nearly $2 million in federal funds as part of" the grant package. "[E]ight colleges and the Minneapolis School of Anesthesia will split the money for nurse education, retention and training, and geriatric training" (Marcotty, 8/5).

NewsOK.com: "Work force training programs at several Oklahoma colleges and universities will get a boost from $2.1 million of grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services... The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center will receive $1,162,114 — more than half the total funds for Oklahoma programs" (8/6).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.