SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Aspiring nurses are now receiving more support to pursue their journey into the medical field as the first cohorts of them were welcomed into a new program through WVU Medicine Tuesday offering just that.
WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals held a signing ceremony welcoming in nursing students from BridgeValley Community and Technical College as part of its recently established WVU Aspiring Nurse Program. A total of nine cohorts officially signed on to the program Tuesday.
“What we’re doing for this program, it’s a fully comprehensive program to support nursing students, removing any barriers of being successful in joining the nursing profession,” WVU Medicine Assistant Vice President Jessica Huffman said.
While aspiring nurses can receive support to pursue a career in the field through student loans, grants, and scholarships going towards school, the new program provides them with the means to support their everyday life expenses.
Each student entering the program receives $5,000 per semester, equaling out to $25,000 over the course of four semesters. This includes a sign-on bonus upon hire in exchange for a three-year work commitment following graduation.
Huffman said this unique scholarship the program offers will help fulfill a need which aspiring nurses have been faced with for a longtime.
“We realized the more we talked with our educational partners that each individual nursing student has individual barriers and unique situations that they’re trying to get through nursing school,” Huffman said. “This money will be able to be used for child care costs, maybe car expenses for others, or rent.”
Huffman said they will not dictate what the funds could be used for, but she hopes it to be an incentive for them to complete their nursing journey.
“They don’t have the ability to just focus on school, they have a lot of other obligations and demands in their life and we’re hoping by giving them this little contribution of support that they will be able to focus on their studies and be more successful in school as a result,” said Huffman.