July 14, 2025
Total award to reach nearly $2 Million over four years
NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University has received a $494,755 continuation award from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to certify more nurses as Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNP) in rural and underserved areas of Louisiana.
“The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program provides essential learning experiences to registered nurses who are interested in growing into a care manager for patients needing expert guidance and treatment of psychiatric conditions,” said Dr. Aaron Stigers. “The PMHNP program first started at NSU in year 2017 and graduates a cohort of clinical students annually. Students are prepared to independently manage clients with psychiatric conditions upon graduation.”
Stigers leads the university’s ongoing project, “PMHNPs: Bridging the Behavioral Healthcare Gap,” which is supported by the grant awarded through the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals. He is also director of NSU’s Master of Science in Nursing and Post Master’s Certificate programs and coordinator of NSU’s Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program.
“The grant provides financial support to students during their matriculation in clinical coursework,” Stigers said. “Many, if not all, students work part-time or full-time as a nurse while earning their Master of Science in Nursing degree. The grant funding helps to provide additional support to students to ensure their success during the clinical program. Additionally, this cycle of grant funding focuses on recruiting Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners preceptors through clinical mentor training. Preceptors who complete mentor training will be able to receive financial support when training our students in clinical.”
Stigers has worked as an adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner for several years and treated many patients for mental health and mood disorders.
“Primary care providers are in short supply with projections of further shortages,” he said. “Psychiatric specialists are an even scarcer resource. Due to the lack of psychiatric providers, patients are often treated by primary care for mental health problems. When a patient is unresponsive to therapies or if the mental affliction is severe, primary care attempts to align patients with psychiatric specialists if a specialist is available to manage the client.”
Stigers said the grant is essential in growing the workforce of Psychiatric Mental Health NPs who will take care of clients with both common and complex psychiatric disorders.
“The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners program at NSU focuses on providing the graduate core learning along with clinical direction to help registered nurses in Louisiana grow into this specialty field of interest,” he said. “This grant also helps support growth in this Nurse Practitioner track bringing on a new dedicated faculty coordinator to assist in curriculum updates critical for making our Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners graduates excellent clinicians.”
This year’s award is part of a four-year initiative totaling $1,979,020. The project period spans from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2029.
The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner students learn through an online platform throughout the program focusing on didactic content only during their first year of learning. After the first year, students start clinical progression and maintain continuous enrollment in clinical learning for five semesters earning over 600 hours of clinical experience.
The project aims to deliver interdisciplinary clinical training focused on high-risk youth, adolescents and transition-aged populations; integrate telehealth tools and improve digital health literacy among students, faculty and clinical partners; recruit and support a diverse behavioral health workforce reflective of Louisiana’s underserved regions and enhance the quality and availability of clinical preceptorship through structured training and compensation.
Across the four-year period, NSU will provide annual stipend support to PMHNP students and clinical preceptors, improving access to care and advancing educational outcomes. The program builds on the success of a previous BHWET grant cycle and reflects NSU’s continued commitment to meeting critical workforce needs in Louisiana, according to Dr. Aimee Badeaux, dean of NSU’s College of Nursing and School of Allied Health.
“The continuation award from Health Resources and Services Administration underscores federal confidence in NSU’s leadership and impact in behavioral health workforce development and affirms the university’s role in advancing access to care in medically underserved communities,” Badeaux said.
Information on nursing programs offered through NSU’s College of Nursing is available at https://www.nsula.edu/nursing/nursing-programs/. For information on the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program, the Master of Science in Nursing program or Post-Masters’ Certificate programs, contact Stigers at stigersa@nsula.edu.
