The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has awarded 11 nursing school grants, totaling $750,000, and 40 nurse educator fellowships, totaling $400,000, for fiscal year 2023 across the state. The grants awarded to institutions of higher education will help increase the number of registered professional nurses with high-quality postsecondary credentials to meet the demands of the Illinois economy, and the awarded fellowships will help retain well-qualified nursing faculty at institutions of higher education that award degrees that lead to a registered nurse licensure. Compared to the previous year, seven more grants and 20 more fellowships were awarded thanks to an increase in funds in Governor J.B. Pritzker’s FY23 budget supported by the General Assembly.

Nursing school grants will be used to enhance institution programs and efforts to close equity gaps in their nursing programs. Funds may be used for hiring additional nursing faculty and staff, developing and expanding instructional programs and modalities, expanding academic support services, improving classroom and lab spaces, and purchasing equipment and instructional materials, and more. Fellowships were awarded to nurse educators with strong commitments to use fellowship funds to enhance their professional practice in their area of specialty as well as remain in higher education. Each fellowship is $10,000, and the funds are salary supplements that may be used for expenses related to professional development and continuing education to enhance the fellow’s practice as a nurse educator, as well as the fellow’s nursing program. For the full list of nursing recipients, visit IBHE’s website (https://www.ibhe.org/).