Law expands tuition forgiveness for nurses

Senate Bill 513, sponsored by Sen. Dan Clemens, R-Marshfield, expands the professional and practical nurse student loan program and allows nurses to earn forgiveness on their nursing school tuition loans by working in defined areas of need.

The law expands the types of facilities in which nurses can earn tuition forgiveness by allowing them to work in more for-profit facilities. Previously, the law allowed participants in the state’s loan-forgiveness program to work in public or nonprofit settings and excluded all for-profit facilities except hospitals.

“As we face nursing shortages and great health care needs in our state, it is very important that we do everything we can to educate the next generation of medical professionals and encourage those professionals to practice in our state’s underserved areas,” Clemens said in a news release.

Professional and practical nursing student loans provide financial aid to students pursuing careers as licensed practical nurses or professional nurses in underserved areas of Missouri.

To be eligible for the student loan program, the applicant must:

• be a Missouri resident and a full-time student in a formal course of instruction leading to an associate degree, a diploma, a Bachelor of Science or a Master of Science in nursing or leading to the completion of educational requirements to be a licensed practical nurse;

• attend a Missouri institution; and

• be accepted by or currently attending a nursing program approved by the Missouri State Board of Nursing, with at least an 80 percent pass rate for the previous year.

Applications are available at www.dhss.mo.gov/HealthProfStudentLoans/.