Service-Linked Scholarships, Loans, and Loan Repayment Programs for Nurses in the Southeast

A variety of public and private programs provide financial support for the costs of nurses' training in exchange for service commitments to work in rural, underserved, and other needy areas. Little is known about the number, size, and operations of these support-for-service programs for nurses. We identified and in this article describe such programs in eight southeastern states. Eligible programs were those that in 2004 paid for all or a portion of nurses' education costs in exchange for a period of clinical nursing service within one or more of the eight targeted states. Programs obligating nurses to a specific hospital, practice, or community or to teaching roles were excluded. Programs were identified through available compendia, online searches, and telephone contacts with program directors, nursing school administrators, and state officials. Additional data on eligible programs were gathered through telephone interviews and questionnaires mailed to program staff and from publicly available documents. Data were double coded, and qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. Twenty-four nursing support-for-service programs met our eligibility criteria in the eight-state region: nine scholarship programs; six loan repayment programs; five service-cancelable loan programs; two loan interest rate reduction programs; and two direct incentive programs. These programs had fiscal year 2004 budgets totaling approximately $28.8–31.8 million; collectively, they received approximately 11,700 applications from nurses, signed approximately 8,300 contracts, and had a combined field strength of approximately 4,900 nurses working to fulfill their program obligations. Individual states offered between zero and five eligible programs each. Support-for-service programs are a substantial component of federal and state nursing workforce distribution efforts in the Southeast. Future research should identify and describe these programs for other regions, measure outcomes, and offer recommendations to maximize their effectiveness in alleviating nursing shortages.