Scholarship could help you return to nursing
The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma is offering nurse refresher course scholarships for nurses who want to return to the field or enter it for the first time.
Each $2,000 scholarship will pay for the course for a nurse who does not have an active license but who wants to return to work or who never took the board exams.
The statewide nurse refresher course is part of a partnership between the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Ten Oklahoma CareerTech technology centers offer the course.
Although some scholarships have been awarded, more were recently still available.
“Recipients of the scholarships included a woman who lost her job while caring for her husband, who had COVID-19,” said Lara Morris, Oklahoma CareerTech health careers education state program manager. “She had planned to use stimulus money for the course, but because she received a scholarship, she was able to pay back rent and utilities.”
Oklahoma CareerTech and the OU College of Nursing worked together to streamline the course in response to the pandemic and the need for more nurses, both to work in hospitals and to replace nurses who moved to hospitals from clinics and other facilities, Morris said.
The program includes a self-paced, online nursing theoretical course, a nursing skills lab provided by Oklahoma CareerTech technology centers and a clinical experience that will show students' clinical competency. The clinical experience may be virtual or in-person, depending on the technology center. The revisions have lowered the number of hours required for students who achieve baseline competency. The fees also have been lowered, from $2,599 to $2,000.
The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma donated $200,000 to create 100 scholarships of $2,000 each. John Logan, the foundation's executive director, said he proposed it to the foundation because he was afraid that even the reduced cost might prevent some nurses from taking the course and returning to work.
Technology centers offering the course are Autry Tech, Canadian Valley Tech, Green Country Tech, Kiamichi Tech, Meridian Tech, Metro Tech, Moore Norman Tech, Pontotoc Tech, Southern Tech and Tulsa Tech. Scholarship applications are being taken at the participating technology centers.
For questions related to the scholarship and taking the course at Moore Norman Tech, call 405-801-5833.