Please help, Info needed on hospitals that pay for nursing school.

student_nursecanada · Feb 8, 2005

Hey there,

Im kinda having the same problem right now, except for the fact that im in Canada and im just starting my degree. I have spoken to a few people already and the best answer that i got was that a lot of hospitals in US will contribute to your tuition if you sign a contract agreeing to work for that istitution for a certain amount of time. That is the best i got. Sorry not much help really. In my mind the best thing to try and do is contact hospitals directly and inquire.

keng67goat · Feb 9, 2005

Hey there,
Im kinda having the same problem right now, except for the fact that im in Canada and im just starting my degree. I have spoken to a few people already and the best answer that i got was that a lot of hospitals in US will contribute to your tuition if you sign a contract agreeing to work for that istitution for a certain amount of time. That is the best i got. Sorry not much help really. In my mind the best thing to try and do is contact hospitals directly and inquire.

You are right, everyone I talk to say the exact same thing. So you just started. Stick with it. It is a long haul but you need to stay on track. I still have a ways to go. SO which school you go to?

twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN · Feb 9, 2005

I actually have a scholarship through a local health system that has several hospitals and paid up to $4000 per semester as long as I worked for them 1 year for every year of award. The money is a reimbursment for anything school related.

I was thinking when I applyed that it might be a good thing and whats another year out of school anyways right? But now it looks like I got almost everything paid for by the pell grant. So it may not be that worth it to me. Especially as we want to move soon after I graduate for something alot more rural.

But yeah, there are programs out there. Check out the scholarship information at your school, that is how I found out about mine. Or call local hospitals (the big ones) and see what they have going.

student_nursecanada · Feb 9, 2005

Its University of Calgary, AB. I think i might also just try inquiring through the RN's Association of Canada, but we'll see......

I have already tried http://www.studentawards.com, which is a scholarship site for students and that didnt yield much results. Oh well keep going though. Take a look at other scholarship sites on the web though.

spoiled · Feb 9, 2005

I am in nursing school now. Where I live almost all the major hospitals have nursing schools with some kind of help for the students. Where I go, there is a work re-embursement program. They completely pay for you schooling and you have to work for them for 2 years. If you choose not to work for them then you have to pay them back for the schooling. It's not a scholarship. They also have full time and part time hours. I go part time because I work full time. We have classes twice a week and lab and clinical on Saturdays.

Hello,
This is my first post. I am finished with my pre-recs for nursing and will start my final 2yrs for my RN. I was told there are hospitals that will hire you and pay for your schooling, but you have to work for them when you graduate.
Does anyone have any info on this or any hospitals that will do this.
thanks you
If you want to talk directly you can email me [email protected]
Thank you.

keng67goat · Feb 9, 2005

Hey you guys have some great ideas. I just need to follow up on them.

So most of you are saying that this is very common to get a hospital to assist with the cost of nursing. Does anyone have info on grants?

spoiled · Feb 11, 2005

The hospitals around here don't have grants. They are work/study programs. They educate you and you promise to work for them for 2 years. You can also apply to fasfa to see if you can get any government grants and loans. But if you want to work somewhere besides the hospital that educated you, you can see if you can get another employer to buy out your contract or you can get a loan when you get out of school to pay back the hospital. But I figure that once you graduate, you have to get a couple of years of experience in a hospital anyway.

Hey you guys have some great ideas. I just need to follow up on them.
So most of you are saying that this is very common to get a hospital to assist with the cost of nursing. Does anyone have info on grants?

WildShot · Feb 11, 2005

hi,

I was looking at the finicial aid bulleteen board and found out that my state (PA) will re-imburse my college tuition AFTER I graduate as long as i keep a "C" average. I need a "C" average to graduate anyways hehehehe. If I promise to work in PA for 3 years they will re-imburse me my tuition (apporx 3 grand a year ) for me. So I am doing work-study, pell grant, and out of pocket. I would recommend that you go to the finiancial aid dept. and looked around for grants,scholarships, and loan forgiveness programs. good luck

rebeccainlv · Feb 11, 2005

The hospitals in Las Vegas have programs that pay a certain amount (up to $2K) each semester if you sign a contract with the hospital's company. There are 2 major companies that own the hospitals here. Major point though...if you sign their contract, that money is considered your sign on bonus. If you don't work for them after graduation, you have to pay the money back.

Another point that impacted my decision not to do it...for some reason, the hospital money is considered financial aid (even though you sign a contract with the company). I have GI Bill (also considered aid even though it's a benefit I paid for) and also got a Pell Grant and student loan. So, I was only eligible for about $400 per semester from the hospital program. I'm not tying myself down to any certain company for a total of $1600. The RN sign on bonuses right now are going for around $3K and up.

Really check into the ins and outs of your particular programs. They can be tricky like mine is.

keng67goat · Feb 11, 2005

The hospitals in Las Vegas have programs that pay a certain amount (up to $2K) each semester if you sign a contract with the hospital's company. There are 2 major companies that own the hospitals here. Major point though...if you sign their contract, that money is considered your sign on bonus. If you don't work for them after graduation, you have to pay the money back.
Another point that impacted my decision not to do it...for some reason, the hospital money is considered financial aid (even though you sign a contract with the company). I have GI Bill (also considered aid even though it's a benefit I paid for) and also got a Pell Grant and student loan. So, I was only eligible for about $400 per semester from the hospital program. I'm not tying myself down to any certain company for a total of $1600. The RN sign on bonuses right now are going for around $3K and up.
Really check into the ins and outs of your particular programs. They can be tricky like mine is.

Hey I will be using my GI Bill as well, how much does te GI bill cover per semester. What are the ins and outs of using it that you have found?

rebeccainlv · Feb 11, 2005

GI Bill is somewhat complicated. I'm not suprised that most people don't use it.

To first get started, you need to take your contribution paperwork (that you got when you set up your allotment, etc) to the college VA office. I think you also need your DD214. There will be a couple of things to fill out (I think).

You will also have to take a copy of your class schedule (you're paid by full time, part time, etc). You will also probably need your 'degree plan' from you advisor or whomever does that. For me, it was my nursing advisor. They have to go through your transcripts to determine what classes you need for your specific degree. Keep in mind that you can only take the specific classes that are required for your degree. So, they will write down a plan for what classes you will take in what semester to finish your degree. Then you take that to the college VA office. I would do that before you do anything else.

Then you register for the classes that are on your degree plan and take that to the VA office. You may have to have your advisor sign a paper each semester saying that you are taking the right classes. I had to do that at one school, but not the one I'm at now. Then, VA will fax all the papers to the head VA place for your area. Keep checking back on this because it could take up to a month and you dont' want to fall through the cracks and not get paid when you were expecting it.

When it is all set up, then you go online to the WAVE site and log in. You can't verify your enrollment until the last day of the month. So, you log in, verify enrollment for that month and that's that. Then you will get direct deposit to your bank acount in a few days. I do it the last day of the month and get paid by the 9th of the next month.

Right now the payment for full time (21 credits) is $1154 per month. It goes up each October.

Also, if you are going to have extra time left over (36 months total), then sign up for a minor and you can take those classes too and get paid. For example, I have a nursing major and psych minor. I took 1 full year of full time classes to finish my BSN prereqs. Got paid each month and through the winter break. Then when summer came around, I applied for the psych minor and I take 2 classes each summer to get paid for part of the summer. Remember that you can't get paid for longer than what the course runs so if you take 5 week summer classes then you get paid for full time (6 credits in summer) for 5 weeks. If you took 1 or 2 classes that was the full summer term then you would get paid the full summer and for the short break before fall starts.

Oh yeah...you don't ever have to finish your minor and you can change your minor once or twice I think. You just have to be willing to take and pass the classes to get paid.

You can get paid through winter break if you want. If you have extra time on your payments then you can do that to use as much benefit as you can. If you aren't going to have any extra time, then you dont' have to get break pay. They count the actual time down to the day so you will probably have more benefit than what you think.

I am going to end up with about 2 full months left over when I graduate next May. I am going to use that pay for an NCLEX review course. They will also pay for things like that if you have extra time left over.

I hope all of this makes sense to you. It is complicated and the VA people don't always tell you everything you need to know. I have found things out the hard way in the past 1.5 years. No one ever sat down and explained all of the ends and outs. Now I know how to get the most from my benefits. I'm using every cent that they will give me. I paid for it and I earned it in many ways.

I also get VA disability. I'm rated at 80% and that pays even better than GI Bill. GI Bill is counted as financial aid and that really ticks me off. So, if your school has a student budget of $15K per year, then GI Bill will take up over $10K right there. You will only be able to get loans/grants, etc for the other $5K. GI Bill and disability are both tax free and are not reported as income.

Please ask questions if you need to. I want other people to be able to use their benefits to the fullest.