November 09, 2023
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
The Independence Blue Cross Foundation is providing scholarships to 50 veterans, enabling them to attend nursing school for free, through its new Service Scholars Program. Above, Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the IBX Foundation, details the program at its launch ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023.
A new program from the Independence Blue Cross Foundation aims to reduce the national nursing shortage and help veterans transition to civilian life.
The Service Scholars Program will offer scholarships to 50 veterans enrolled at 16 nursing schools in the Philadelphia region next fall. The scholarships will supplement the tuition assistance the veterans receive from a federal program, allowing them to attend school for free.
"We know the field has been challenged and the pandemic only made things worse," said Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the IBX Foundation. She pointed to an April report from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which estimated 100,000 nurses left the profession during the COVID-19 pandemic due to stress, burnouts and retirements. Another 600,000 nurses are projected to leave within the next four years.
"That means more than 275,000 additional nurses are needed to meet the current health care demands in this decade alone," Marshall-Blake said. "But this is definitely the kind of problem our foundation is well-suited and eager to help solve."
The Service Scholars Program will supply $300,000 to $350,000 in scholarships next year. The individual amounts of the scholarships will vary because they are intended to cover the difference in tuition price and tuition assistance that veterans receive from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Yellow Ribbon Program. Through that program, the federal government matches tuition assistance that schools give to veterans who have served since 9/11. The combined funding from that program does not always cover the veterans' full tuition costs.
That's where the Service Scholars Program is stepping in.
"This program is so exciting, said Admiral Karen Flaherty-Oxler, a 38-year former Navy nurse who nows serves as the director of Philadelphia's Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. "As we look at how we help veterans move from military duty to civilian life, the transition is hard. We will all be better for this."
Independence officials said Service Scholars Program can thrive because the nursing profession offers veterans an opportunity to fulfill their desire to serve.
"Like nurses, military veterans are issue-oriented," said Stephen P. Fera, executive vice president of public affairs and government markets at IBX. "Like nurses, they work well under pressure and like nurses they're hard-wired in their desire to serve others.
"Veterans entering civilian life are seeking the same sense of mission and purpose as when they were serving their country. But it's not always easy to find."
The program also seeks to translate the veterans' military experience – and military college credits that don't automatically transfer – into college credits, IBX Foundation Executive Director Heather Major said.
"What that will do, and this is probably the most important part, is it will honor the service of our veterans," Major said. "So instead of starting in Year One or Year Two, they may start at Year Three. They'll get into the workforce faster and they'll be better prepared."
