The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) has announced another Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention (NEPQR) opportunity. This second program, titled “NEPQR –Bachelor of Science in Nursing Practicums in Community Settings (BPCS) Program,” is designed to increase experiential training opportunities for senior-level BSN students in primary care community-based settings. The purpose is to increase the number of BSN students with meaningful clinical experience and training in medically underserved and rural communities, who will then be more likely to choose to work in these settings upon graduation. This is a competitive opportunity in which applicants are required to apply as part of an academic-practice partnership between one or more schools of nursing and one or more primary care practice sites located in underserved and/or rural settings. HRSA anticipates awarding up to $500,000 per year for two years to only 12 grant recipients. Applications are due January 20, 2016.

This opportunity differs from NEPQR-Interprofessional Collaborative Practice:  Behavioral Health Integration (NEPQR-IPCP:BHI) program, which focuses on integrating interprofessional and collaborative models of behavioral health services into routine nurse-led primary care for vulnerable and/or underserved/rural populations. Words for Good has expertise with joint NEPQR applications from health care systems and schools of nursing, with an example of a recent success found here.