Amerigroup Tennessee has created an Amerigroup Rural Medicine Scholarship for ETSU’s nursing department, which will work to improve healthcare in rural Tennessee counties.
The grant, which totals $156,000, was unveiled at a virtual ceremony on Jan. 29. ARMS will cover tuition and fees for three students of ETSU’s Master of Science in Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner concentration. Scholarship recipients will each be awarded $52,000 in fall 2021.
“ARMS was established to remove financial barriers and allow students to focus on reaching their education and career goals, creating a straight path to success and to encourage students to seek nurse practitioner positions that allow them to serve in a distressed county in Tennessee,” said Robert Garnett, president of Amerigroup Tennessee.
Garnett stated in the virtual ceremony that rural counties in Tennessee often lack adequate access to healthcare. To close the disparities in Tennessee healthcare, ARMS requires that scholarship recipients work in one of Tennessee’s 11 distressed counties upon their graduation for three years. Those counties include Lake, Lauderdale, Hardeman, Perry, Wayne, Clay, Grundy, Bledsoe, Scott, Hancock and Cocke. These distressed counties are defined by the average unemployment rate, per capita market income and poverty rate.
Kathryn Wilhoit, interim dean for ETSU’s College of Nursing, referenced how family nurse practitioners are crucially needed as a nursing shortage sweeps the nation.
“They really make a great difference in the healthcare that’s provided,” said Wilhoit.
Family nurse practitioners care for patients throughout their lifetime and can largely impact a patient’s healthcare experience.
Garnett said that ARMS will “create primary care access for 3,750 Medicaid members per year.”
The scholarship application is currently open, and the deadline is March 1. Applicants will be considered based on financial need and their dedication to serving communities. The application can be found on the ETSU College of Nursing website.
“We look forward to the evolution of ARMS in the years ahead and the impact it will have for health care delivery in rural communities,” said Garnett.
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