Graduates of UMaine nursing program boost primary care in rural areas

Photo / Courtesy University of Maine Graduate students in the family nurse practitioner program at the UMaine School of Nursing complete an exam on a patient.

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By Laurie Schreiber

Since its launch in 2023, a workforce training program at the University of Maine’s School of Nursing in Orono has grown its enrollment and has placed trainees and graduates in rural, medically underserved communities across Maine.

In its first academic year, the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce program, or ANEW, supported 23 trainees and seven graduates who are providing care in rural, medically underserved communities across the state.

UMaine’s School of Nursing launched the program to address the need for more family nurse practitioners, according to a news release.

The program financially supports and educates students willing to work in areas with limited access to health care once they receive their degrees.

Enrollment has grown since ANEW funding has been in place, Sean Sibley, family nurse practitioners program coordinator and clinical assistant faculty at the UMaine School of Nursing, told Mainebiz.

Six family nurse practitioners students are on track to graduate this May, six more in May 2026 and 10 in May 2027.

Maine is considered the most rural state in the U.S. and 40% of its population lives in one of 11 rural counties, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Health Resources and Services Administration designated the state’s 16 counties as medically underserved populations. The administration awarded UMaine a $1.9 million grant for four years to strengthen its family nurse practitioners program, to produce nurse practitioners who will care for patients in rural, underserved areas.

“The funding reduces barriers for registered nurses to develop into advanced practice professionals and is a resource that has encouraged many to take on the challenge of growing professionally,” said Sibley.

Haley Strout graduated from the program in December 2023 and is working full-time as a primary care provider at Washington County’s Harrington Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center — a nonprofit clinic that provides comprehensive care.

ANEW provided a scholarship of approximately $20,000 to fund her final year in UMaine’s family nurse practitioners program.

“I was able to really just focus on studying and being prepared for my boards,” Strout said.

Susan Plissey graduated from the family nurse practitioners program in May 2024 and is working at the Katahdin Valley Health Center, a federally qualified health center in the Penobscot County town of Patten.

Working there allowed her to reach patients who may have been turned away or received limited services at a traditional health care facility because of their ability to pay, she said.

Without the ANEW grant, Plissey said she wouldn’t have been able to afford driving to the facility where she completed her clinicals, which is a 2-hour drive in each direction.

Through ANEW, she also connected with the only provider in a four-hour radius who agreed to instruct her during her final semester of clinicals, which led to her position in Patten.

ANEW is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of an award totaling $451,462 in year 2 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources.

Grant funding through ANEW has not been impacted by federal executive orders, Sibley said.