Scholarship Opportunities
The NEPQR provides scholarships to support students in baccalaureate programs interested in primary care nursing in rural and underserved areas. The scholarships are available each semester. Three types of students are invited to apply for this financial support.
To find out more or to be informed of the upcoming submission deadlines, email uunepqr@utah.edu.
Applicants must have demonstrated academic excellence and be in good academic standing in their program of study. Applicants must demonstrate intent to work in a primary care setting post-graduation. Priority is given to students from rural and underserved communities interested in returning to these communities to work in primary care. Students will agree to participate in the Area Health Education Center Rural Health Scholars Program and engage in experiential experiences in rural and underserved primary care settings. Students are responsible for travel to, and housing at rural clinical sites.
Applicants must have demonstrated academic excellence and be in good academic standing in their program of study. Applicants must demonstrate intent to work in a primary care setting post-graduation. Priority is given to students from rural and underserved communities interested in returning to these communities to work in primary care. Students receiving stipends must commit to completing at least 150 of their required clinical hours in primary care settings in rural and under-served areas during their program. Students are responsible for travel to, and housing at rural clinical sites. Students must maintain good academic standing to be eligible to apply for future stipends awarded by NEPQR.
Applicants must have demonstrated academic excellence and be in good academic standing in their program of study. Applicants must demonstrate intent to work in a primary care setting post-graduation. Students must maintain good academic standing to be eligible to apply for future stipends awarded by NEPQR. Priority is given to students working as primary care RNs in rural and underserved communities and committed to returning to these communities post-graduation. Students will commit to completing their Leadership hours (N4140) and Quality Improvement hours (N4150) in primary care in rural and underserved primary care sites. Students are responsible for travel to, and housing at rural clinical sites, however, additional travel stipends may be available for reimbursement of this travel.
Clinical Opportunities
What can students expect from NEPQR clinical rotations? Students can expect to work with nurse preceptors as they provide clinical care to their clients. These roles and responsibilities are focused on helping clients learn and care for common medical conditions – both urgent and chronic. The primary care modules we created within the courses of the program of study outline specific nurse roles such as that in transitional care, chronic care management, annual wellness visits and medication-assisted treatment. Students will do point of care testing to help monitor blood levels or detect conditions and even experience urgent care as each clinic has emergency beds to help care for or transport critical cases. The work in these clinics is interprofessional and focuses on nurses working to the top of their licensure.
Click HERE to listen to one of our student's experiences during his clinical rotation in primary care in Wayne County.
Course Opportunities
Both of the programs of study in the University of Utah College of Nursing's baccalaureate curriculum now include specialized nursing content related to primary care. You may have heard of this in your orientation before. Each student will have access to modules across the courses, which upon completion, will result in awarding a digital badge on that content.
A digital badge represents the achievement of a certain skill set and attainment of competency. The badge is an electronic representation of this skill set that can be used by the student in portfolios or resumes to communicate your achievement. Completion of the modules for each badge is not in addition to your course work, it is considered work within your course. We want you to use your badges to communicate your special skills and knowledge to others such as employers. We hope that the badges also help alert you that you have focused skills in a new setting—primary care.
Nursing education has traditionally focused on acute care settings. Healthcare reform has brought about a change in nursing education to meet the demands in the workplace to prepare RNs to work to the top of their licensure in primary care settings. Skills of being effective in primary care are not new to nursing; our foundational knowledge of nursing process is the basis of primary care. What is new to nursing curriculum is preparing nurses to work to the top of their licensure. Nurses can bill for services in primary care settings and nurses lead teams in primary care to provide service to population groups. Nurses are bending the curve as we move from fee-for-service to value-driven outcomes payment structures. We have designed the primary care modules to build upon the content of each course through the application of that content to primary care.
You complete the modules as they come along in your courses. Each module is fully online and will have a quiz following the content. We will track this completion and award your badge when you have completed the requirements. Each badge has two modules. Some of the modules are not completed within the same course, so you may not complete a badge within a course but across your program of study.
Contact Us
General Inquiries
uunepqr@utah.edu
Linda Edelman, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN
NEPQR Project Director
linda.edelman@nurs.utah.edu
Harper Vander Hoek, MPH
NEPQR Program Manager
harper.vanderhoek@utah.edu