Virginia has awarded nearly $1.3 million in scholarships and incentives to almost 350 prospective nursing students across the state, part of a broader push to fill a workforce gap that officials say has left patients waiting longer and nurses stretched thinner. The announcement, made Thursday, comes as the state projects it will need tens of thousands of new registered nurses within the next few years.
Governor Abigail Spanberger announced that the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center distributed the funding, according to The Zebra. “Nurses are the heart of Virginia's healthcare system,” Spanberger said, per the same report. The money also supports practicing nurses and experienced clinicians who help students complete clinical training, the outlet reported.
The scale of the problem is significant: Virginia faced a shortage of 17,000 registered nurses in 2025, according to the governor's office, and the state expects demand for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to substantially outpace supply over the next decade. Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin B. Figueroa, who previously served as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Deputy Health Secretary under Governor Ralph Northam, according to his bio from Meharry School of Global Health, put it bluntly: nurse shortages cause people to wait longer, travel farther, and increase the burden on nurses already working, the governor's announcement noted.
Where the Money Goes
The scholarship lineup includes long-term care scholarships, Mary Marshall scholarships, graduate-level nursing scholarships, and a school nurse LPN-to-RN scholarship, the state announcement said. Long-term care scholarships provide up to $2,000 to students preparing to serve in long-term care settings, while Mary Marshall scholarships offer up to $1,000 for certified nurse aide students and up to $2,000 for eligible practical nursing and registered nursing students.
Several of these scholarships require recipients to work in Virginia after finishing their education. The Mary Marshall program specifically ties that commitment to geography: recipients must complete one year of continuous practice in a medically underserved area of Virginia for every year of aid received, according to the Rural Health Information Hub.
A separate Nurse Preceptor Incentive Program pays eligible licensed clinicians supervising nursing students at approved Virginia schools between $500 and $5,000 per semester, with funding prioritized for high-demand specialties like psychiatry and anesthesiology, according to the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center. Preceptors help students apply classroom learning while working directly with patients, and the state notes that preceptor shortages have historically forced nursing schools to limit how many students they can place in clinical settings.
Earn to Learn and a Bigger Administrative Overhaul
The Virginia Nursing Workforce Center also offers loan repayment assistance for eligible registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nurse aides who commit to working in nursing within the state. And the Earn to Learn initiative supports partnerships between educational institutions and healthcare providers that let students earn income while completing required clinical training — funding partnerships rather than individual students, with eligible partnerships receiving up to $400,000 over two years, according to the governor's office. WHRO reported on August 31, 2026, that Earn to Learn was launching as a new grant program, with $4.8 million available through up to 12 two-year grants of $400,000 each.
These scholarships exist today in a different structure than in years past. Cardinal News reported in June that Virginia shifted oversight of roughly 60% of its health workforce incentive programs away from the Virginia Department of Health after more than $10 million in nursing scholarship funds sat unused in previous years, a problem the outlet attributed to the department's administrative limits. Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sen. L. Louise Lucas and Del. Mark Downey established the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center in law and reorganized how the state handles nursing workforce assistance, per the governor's announcement.
Senate Bill 405, signed March 31, 2026, transferred existing nursing workforce incentive programs to the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority's Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, according to the Virginia Department of Health, with the transfer taking effect July 1. The legislation, along with companion House Bill 815, granted the authority rulemaking power exempt from the state's Administrative Process Act and required creation of an advisory board to guide the new center, according to the Virginia Legislative Information System. Previously, the State Board of Health had administered the scholarships with the Health Commissioner acting as fiscal agent.
A Shortage With Sharp Regional Divides
Yvette Dorsey, named Director of the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center in 2026, said the strong response to the programs shows the continued need to invest in Virginia's nursing workforce, according to the governor's announcement. Dorsey previously served as Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for HCA Healthcare's Capital Division and began her career 28 years ago as a Licensed Practical Nurse, per a Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority report; she now holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
The state's projections underscore why officials are moving quickly. The Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority projects Virginia will need 72,900 new registered nurses by 2030 — roughly 4,190 new nurses every year — to meet demand driven by population growth and aging. Before establishing the center this year, Virginia was one of nine states without a dedicated state nursing workforce center.
The shortage is not spread evenly across the commonwealth. A Go Virginia Region 3 report found that healthcare job vacancies accounted for 25% of all open positions in Southside Virginia, compared with 13% statewide, and George Mason University projected nursing staff demand in Southwest Virginia would grow by 18% through 2028 versus 11.8% statewide. Nationally, hospital data published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing put the registered nurse vacancy rate in acute care settings at 8.6%, with an annual hospital turnover rate of 17.6%.
Nursing students, practicing nurses, and healthcare organizations can explore the programs and find application information at vanwc.org, according to the state's announcement.
