The nation's only nursing education program that turns foreign-trained physicians into nurses recently received a $1.4 million federal grant. Offered by the Florida International University School of Nursing in Miami, the New Americans in Nursing program helps prepare under employed foreign-educated physicians living in the United States to become nurses and obtain employment. Initiated in 2002, the program graduated its first class of 32 students in December 2003.
The grant is part of the government's $24.4 million High Growth Job Training Initiative, which aims to alleviate critical workforce shortages. It will help the university expand its program to accommodate classes of 100 students.