Kathryn Tart

Two new federal grants awarded to the University of Houston-Victoria will mean more nurses for the Gulf Coast region.

The university recently received the grants for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program through the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

A $14,801 grant from the federal health administration and an additional $25,134 grant funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act will provide student loans to individuals enrolled in the Master of Science in Nursing with a nurse educator concentration. The degree path produces instructors who will teach others to be nurses.

“If graduates work four years as full-time nurse educators, the loans will be forgiven,” said Kathryn Tart, founding dean of the UHV School of Nursing.

Texas needs an estimated 22,000 more nurses, Tart said. But there simply aren’t enough nurse educators to instruct those individuals willing to fill that need.

Creating those nurse educators is a major reason UHV started its nursing program in 2006. It was granted school status in 2007.

“The No. 1 thing that prevents people from going to school is financial issues,” Tart said. The new program will help alleviate those issues, she said.

Several students already have applied for the loans.

“This is one more example of how the UHV School of Nursing is helping to fill a vital need in this community and state,” Tart said. “One of the great duties of education is to find and fill needs in the places we serve.”

For more information, or to apply for the loans, visit www.uhv.edu/nursing and click on the “scholarships” link, or call recruitment coordinator Tammy Neeley Whatley at whatleyt@uhv.edu.