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Nursing scholarships program mulled
In an attempt to relieve the nursing shortage at the Commonwealth Health Center, the CNMI Scholarship Office is looking at possibly providing scholarships for nursing students.
The office is studying the idea of providing scholarship funds for students who are looking into obtaining a nursing degree from the Northern Marianas College.
Sen. Justo Quitugua (Ind-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune yesterday that the Senate Committee on Education and Youth Affairs is currently looking into Senate President Arnold I. Palacios’ (R-Saipan) Senate Bill 20-71.
The bill seeks to establish scholarships grants specifically for qualified undergraduate students pursuing a nursing degree at NMC.
The committee, chaired by Quitugua, earlier amended the bill to increase the number of scholarships offered from 10 to 20, with three each awarded to students from Rota and Tinian, while the remaining 14 scholarships would go to students from Saipan.
“Funding would come from the CNMI Scholarship Office,” Quitugua said. He added that the amount would be derived from the annual appropriation to the Scholarship Office.
According to S.B. 20-71, each scholarship would be worth $8,000 per annum.
In order to qualify for a scholarship, S.B. 20-71 provides that a student must be a U.S. citizen; a CNMI resident for at least three consecutive years prior to enrollment in a college or university, and agree to work as a nurse at CHC, Tinian Health Center, or Rota Health Center for a period of two years per each year of scholarship assistance.
Scholars who fail or refuse to complete the obligation would pay back all scholarship funding received.
If enacted into law, those who avail of scholarship funding from this program would be ineligible to receive any other financial assistance funded by the CNMI government.
According to Quitugua, S.B. 20-71 has garnered the support of NMC and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and remains at the committee level.
