Montana State University Awarded Grant For Rural Nursing Program

Montana State University has received a grant to help nursing students make the jump to working in rural clinics and hospitals after graduation.

Cool!  What's the plan?

The university received the Blue Impact Grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana earlier this year.  The funds will go towards setting up a program to help post-graduate nurses transition from the classroom directly into positions at rural clinics.

MSU has already started assess the needs at Montana's rural health care facilities, including taking a look at their own nursing program curriculum to identify if there are any changes that need to be made.  They're also putting together a survey for rural health care providers to be distributed early next year.  They hope to have all the data they need by March, and will use the data to develop the program.

Here's why this is important.

I think we can agree that healthcare in rural areas tends to get the short end of the stick on just about everything.

There often aren't enough equipment, supplies or personnel to meet the needs of their communities, requiring people to travel to larger communities where those things are available.

As a result, the smaller clinics struggle and often have to either close their doors or reduce the services they can provide, making things worse for the areas they serve.

MSU has been working to help get people the healthcare they need, not only with the proposed program, but with things like developing technology to allow people in rural areas to take part in clinical trials.