Nursing Workforce Development (NWD) - Project Abstract Summary CHCI Nursing Workforce Development (NWD) Program Community Health Center, Inc. (CHCI), a Federally Qualified Health Center serving more than 100,000 low-income patients annually across all eight Connecticut counties, will use Nursing Workforce Development (NWD) program support to increase the number of registered nurses (RNs) and primary care nurse practitioners (NPs) from disadvantaged backgrounds who complete BSN or MSN education and enter practice in Connecticut's medically underserved communities. CHCI will partner with three accredited nursing programs: the Davis & Henley College of Nursing at Sacred Heart University (SHU) and Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) for BSN students, and the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Nursing for MSN/FNP students. In Year 1, CHCI will support students already enrolled—BSN juniors at SHU and WCSU and first-year FNP students at UConn—while designing the recruitment and outreach model for Years 2–4, when CHCI will lead community outreach to its patients, "first-rung" staff (community health workers, medical assistants, peer counselors), and school-based health centers. The program addresses well-documented barriers facing disadvantaged students—cost, competing family and caregiving responsibilities, limited confidence and sustained support, and a lack of role models—through a comprehensive systems approach spanning recruitment through graduation: holistic admissions support, scholarships and stipends, structured academic and peer mentoring, wraparound support for social determinants of learning, and precepted clinical training at CHCI's primary care and school-based health sites. CHCI will also expand its pool of clinical preceptors by recruiting and training its own RN and APRN/NP staff. Across the period of performance, CHCI projects supporting 28 student-years across two cohorts at the three universities, yielding 12 graduates. Governance rests with an Executive Advisory Board and a project team meeting quarterly; the Weitzman Institute (WI), CHCI's research arm, will lead a mixed-methods evaluation tracking enrollment, retention, graduation, support utilization, preceptor capacity, and post-completion practice location for at least one year after graduation. This initiative builds on CHCI's 50-plus-year history as a nursing clinical training partner, its 1,028 health professions trainees hosted since 2021, and its affiliated Moses-Weitzman Health System institutions, including the national NP residency model and NIMAA's medical assistant training program. It responds to acute national and state nursing shortages and to the significant chronic disease and behavioral health burden in CHCI's service communities. Key sustainability elements—recruitment infrastructure, preceptor development, and an internal career-ladder mentoring program—will transition into standing CHCI operations, while direct student financial support will be diversified across university aid, philanthropy, and employer tuition reimbursement, targeting 40–50% non-federal funding by Year 4.
