Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Fellowship
Building Primary Care Nurse Practitioners in Rural and Underserved Communities
This Grow Your Own model is an innovative project to increase access to primary care services in rural and underserved Colorado and is funded by The Colorado Health Foundation.
Program Details
Colorado Registered Nurses accepted to or enrolled in a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program* with an anticipated graduation date prior to 6/30/2027 and are currently embedded in rural and underserved areas of Colorado, are eligible to apply for the fellowship. Black, indigenous and nurses of color are encouraged to apply.
*Family Nurse Practitioner, Women's Health NP, Geriatric NP or Pediatric NP or Rural and Underserved FNP Program
The fellowship provides:
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Financial stipend up to $10,000
(dispersed over 2-3 years)
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Flexibility to choose your school
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Monthly 1:1 professional coaching
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Training related to bias busters and intracultural development.
Have Questions?
Contact Susan Moyer at susan@coloradonursingcenter.org
Applications accepted 6/13/24 - 7/11/24
Final selection of awardees will be by 7/31/24.
Finalist are required to participate in a virtual interview.
The Challenge
Colorado has a shortage of providers in rural communities. Rural communities around the state are unable to provide full access to primary health care within their communities. Medicaid expansion provided payment converge but did not address the provider shortages in underserved communities. This gap in providers in rural and underserved communities hinders health access and leads to health inequities.
The Second Challenge is a nursing workforce that is not reflective of the population of Colorado. Provider/patient concordance, or a shared identity between a patient and a provider based on a demographic attribute, such as race, gender, or age, improves patient outcomes and is one strategy to eliminate health disparities.
The Solution
It has been identified that there are RN’s who are rooted and living in rural and underserved communities who want to serve as a provider in their communities but lacked resources to expand their education to do so.
The Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence, with grant funding from The Colorado Health Foundation, developed this fellowship program to support nurse practitioner students living in rural and underserved communities through this “Grow Your Own” model where the recipients are NP students already embedded in the rural and underserved communities where they plan to practice. In addition, healthcare has the opportunity to move the needle on the elimination of health disparities by increasing diversity in our workforce.