Three hundred and fifty prospective nursing students around Virginia will be able to tap into $1.3 million in scholarships and incentives, new funding that Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced Thursday. 

The financial boost stems from the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, which was created by state lawmakers this year to support the industry and was part of Spanberger’s legislative agenda. 

Last year, an analysis from George Mason University found that Virginia had a registered nurse shortage of 17,000. It mirrors a national trend, with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration projecting a shortage of 267,000 full-time registered nurses across the country by 2028.

Virginia is one of ten states with the largest projected registered nurse shortages by 2038, according to the federal agency. 

The new investments include financial awards between $500 and $5,000 per semester for licensed clinicians who can serve as nursing preceptors, or mentors, for nursing students that need hands-on training to earn their degree. Applications for those awards can be found here. 

Nursing students can also apply for scholarship awards up to $2,000 to help offset the costs of obtaining their degrees.

Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nurse aids may also be eligible to apply for financial awards towards student loan repayments if they  commit to working in the state. 

Colleges, universities, hospitals and other healthcare providers can also apply for grant funding to support participation in a two-year program called Earn to Learn, where students can earn income while they complete their clinical training.

Eligible partnerships can receive up to $400,000, Spanberger’s administration said. 

The governor said nurses “are the heart of Virginia’s healthcare system.” 

“At a time when the federal government is cutting funding and putting access to healthcare coverage at risk, Virginia is investing in our healthcare workforce and making sure our nurses have the support they need to care for Virginians,” Spanberger added.

The nationwide nursing workforce challenge is spurred by multiple factors: retirements of older generations of nurses, a growing number of aging adults in need of nursing care with fewer workers to handle it, COVID-19-era burnout causing some to leave the industry, and educational bottlenecks. 

President Donald Trump’s administration also sought to exclude graduate nursing students from obtaining federal loans for their continued schooling, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the policy. 

Additionally, a reconciliation bill Congress passed last summer also places 300,000 Virginians at risk of losing their Medicaid health insurance, which means small clinics and hospitals alike will absorb uncompensated care that nurses and other healthcare workers provide when uninsured patients need services. 

Some Virginian clinics have closed and hospitals have trimmed services over the past year, citing the reconciliation bill as part of the reason.

Investing in the workforce pipeline is not just critical to supporting workers, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin Figueroa said, but it also supports patients. 

When there are staffing shortages in clinics and hospitals, he said, patients “wait longer. They travel further. And the nurses who are already there are asked to carry even more.”