Arkansas officials grant $20 million to increase nursing pipeline
Registered nurse Orlyn Grace administers a COVID-19 booster vaccination to Jeanie Merriman at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on April 06, 2022 in San Rafael, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
State officials on Monday announced $20 million in grants to assist 19 Arkansas higher education institutions in training more nurses amid a nationwide shortage.
The Arkansas Linking Industry to Grow Nurses (ALIGN) program is supported through American Rescue Plan Act funding and will be administered by the state Commerce Department’s Office of Skills Development, Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald said at Monday’s press conference.
“What we’re trying to do here is to increase the number of nursing professionals, nursing apprenticeships, and increase and retain our nursing educators and do it in a way where our employers obviously are going to hire them,” McDonald said.
According to a request for proposals issued in November, eligible recipients include any public or private post-secondary institution providing LPN, RN and BSN degrees in Arkansas. Each institution was also required to provide a health care partner contribution, with a two-to-one match by the state for every dollar contributed.
Grants are aimed at increasing nursing program capacity, skills upgrades for medical professionals, expanding clinical rotations, tuition reimbursement and lab expansion, among other things, according to the request for proposals.
The funds can’t be used for constructing or renovating buildings, and all funds must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
Great nurses, whom Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called “the backbone of our health care system,” are needed to have great medical facilities, but “we’re not training enough of them fast enough,” she said.
“We’ll need nearly 300,000 new nurses across America by the end of the decade, and the demand for nurses is growing faster than all other occupations,” Sanders said. “The pandemic underscored the need for more nurses, so this program will help fill our health care needs.”
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 275,000 additional nurses will be needed by 2030, and that employment opportunities will grow 9%, faster than all other occupations from 2016 to 2026.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, several factors are contributing to the nursing shortage, including a shortage of nursing school faculty that restricts enrollment and an increased need for geriatric care as the country’s older population grows.
Additionally, more nurses are leaving the profession due to insufficient staffing, which is raising stress levels and affecting job satisfaction — a situation amplified by the pandemic.
A lack of nurses also has contributed to the increase in U.S. hospital closures in recent years, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
To assist struggling rural hospitals at risk of closure, Arkansas lawmakers set aside $60 million of ARPA funding in August 2022 as emergency relief. As of January, legislators had directed the federal relief funds to 17 of 18 rural hospitals deemed eligible for the aid.
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