Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nursing Scholarship Programs Funding

Scholarships are financial aids provided on the basis of academic merit awarded to an institution or an individual for the purposes of furthering their education. They are offered by governments, colleges and private, and other outside sources. They are generally awarded based on the financial need, academic achievement, athletic achievement, community involvement, nationality or ethnicity of the individual. Like grants, they do not have to be repaid.

Nursing Scholarships and grants are provided to compensate for the critical shortage of nurses around the globe.

Many Nursing Scholarship Programs provide tuition fees, required fees, other costs including required books, clinical supplies, laboratory expenses, research facilities, etc., and other scholarship benefits. Preference is given to qualified applicants with the greatest financial need who are enrolled full-time in an undergraduate nursing program. Nursing scholarships or loans are not only granted to the needy and with the highest grades.

Nursing scholarships are given in exchange to: practicing full time as primary care nurse practitioner in a community, teaching in a nursing school, employment as a nurse administrator in health care agencies, working for the Department of Health, service for a period of 2 years at health care facilities, and/or assist in the area of mental health research.

The major sources of nursing scholarships for students are the state and federal governments. Some are sponsored by individual donors or private organizations. Since they often have more nursing scholarships funds available, more and more federal dollars are used to promote underserved areas for nursing students who can commit to service after graduation in a medically underserved institution or region.

Professional nursing organizations, such as the American Nursing Association (ANA) and other active political voices, and many colleges and universities with nursing program, have built up generous scholarship and grant funds for both undergraduate and graduate nurses because of the lack of funding across public and private sources. These grants are administered to nursing scholarship programs to help shore up flagging nursing programs, provide needed funds for new facilities, and provide money to hire more well-trained nursing faculty.

Nursing scholarship forms can be accessed online or you can obtain copies from schools’ financial aid offices. Requirements must be completed at favorable dates or deadlines. They are in first come first served basis. You can explore the web to be able to find what kinds of nursing scholarship programs are offered. You can also find them in private sector loans, grants and other assistance that your local service organization provides.

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