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1994.05.17 : Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives

Contact:  PHS/HRSA               	Patricia Campbell 
Tuesday, May 17, 1994                   (301) 443-3376


     HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the award of
$3.3 million in competitive grants to colleges, universities and
other non-profit organizations to develop or expand advanced nursing
education programs that graduate nurse practitioners and nurse
midwives.  The program is administered by the Health Resources and
Services Administration, an agency of the Public Health Service
within HHS.

     Secretary Shalala said, "Nurse practitioners and nurse midwives
provide the kind of preventive and primary care that is important to
health care reform.  President Clinton's Health Security Act is
predicated, in part, on the wide use of these highly prepared
nurses.  By funding these programs, the administration is helping to
increase the number of advanced practice nurses available to meet
the nation's health care needs, particularly among rural,
underserved and minority populations."

     Nurse practitioners provide primary health care to adults,
children and families.  Nurse midwives provide a full range of care
to women, with emphasis on prenatal care, management of normal
deliveries, and care of the mother and child after delivery. 

     The federal government has provided grants to schools of
nursing to develop advanced practice nursing programs since the
early 1970s.  In 1976, specific legislation was written to fund 
nurse practitioner and nurse-midwife programs.  Since then, more
than 60 projects have been supported each year.

     The number of programs that prepare nurse practitioners has
grown to more than 350, and the number of nurse-midwifery programs
to 40.  There are now more than 48,200 nurse practitioners in the
United States, and approximately 7,400 nurse midwives.

     Both nurse practitioners and nurse midwives work as members of
health care teams or in settings in which they are the only health
care providers available.

     A list of the 14 grantees for FY 1994 follows:


                              - More -.                                - 2 -


School                                              Award
Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.          $  152,703
Samuel Merritt College, Oakland, Calif.            261,703  
Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.             209,322
Albany State College, Albany, Ga.                  228,270
Winona State University, Winona, N.M.              269,293
Montana State University, Bozeman, Mont.           205,944
East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.         340,054
University of Colorado - Health Science Center,
  Denver, Colo.                                    234,298
Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Ga.       203,407
University of California - San Francisco           323,530
Dallas County Hospital District, Parkland 
  Mem. Hospital, Dallas, Texas                     294,965
University of California - Los Angeles             229,015
University of California - San Diego               274,629
Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio               29,380


TOTAL                                           $3,256,513



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