Florida International University Nursing Apprenticeships Promote Rural Primary Care

Florida International University’s (FIU) Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences has awarded $100,000 in traineeship grants to five FIU nurse practitioner graduate students to participate in the pilot of the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program.

ANEW is a two-year nursing education initiative funded by the US Human Resources & Services Administration to prepare advanced practice nurses to provide primary care in rural and underserved areas.

Tami Thomas, associate dean of research for the college and ANEW grant project director, tells News.FIU.edu, “Many of today’s 60 million rural Americans are uninsured, at risk for increased health risk behaviors, and live in poverty at even higher levels than what we see in our big cities. ANEW addresses this inequity by familiarizing nurse practitioners with the challenges and opportunities of working in rural health care settings and preparing them to work to the fullest scope of their abilities.”

The health departments of Glades and Hendry counties will be providing five clinical sites and onsite instructional supervisors to guide the trainees during their training program. FIU nursing faculty will also supplement the training by using telehealth systems to help ANEW trainees deliver care at the clinics.

The first cohort of ANEW trainees are all graduate nursing students from FIU’s Family Nurse Practitioner track. Each trainee will receive up to $20,000 to help cover tuition, living and housing expenses, and textbooks. Their clinical rotation begins in summer 2018.

To learn more about FIU’s rural primary care nursing apprenticeship program and the first cohort of trainees, visit here.