During FY 24, the Virginia General Assembly directed the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to utilize Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA SLRF) to establish the Virginia’s Earn to Learn (ETL) Nursing Education Acceleration Program. The ETL program provides funding to educational institutions in the Commonwealth that offer Virginia Board of Nursing-approved nursing education programs for pre-licensure Registered Nurses (RN) and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) to foster collaborative clinical training arrangements between grant recipients, hospitals, and health providers. Through these partnerships, RN and LPN students participate in a paid clinical apprenticeship that enables them to earn a wage comparable to their current level of practice while training to obtain a higher certification level.
The ETL model is based in a growing body of evidence that suggests that better workforce program outcomes come from programs that incorporate hands-on, work-based trainings alongside academic training, and include access to one-on-one career navigation assistance and other wraparound services. For healthcare professionals, there are several ELT models around the country. The California Department of Health Care Access and Information has an ETL program that offers grants to organizations that provide education and paid job experience to students getting Substance Use Disorder certified in California. The American Hospital Association has spotlighted the ELT efforts at the University of Virginia Medical Center, as well as Germanna Community College’s and Mary Washington Healthcare’s Nursing Assistant pilot program – both created after the COVID-19 pandemic to address the lack of sufficiently trained and licensed applicants to fill the healthcare workforce vacancies seen post-pandemic. Their experience and others have been captured in an Earn While You Learn Clinical Education Model Toolkit published by the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
Upcoming Transition of Nursing Workforce Incentive Programs
On March 31, 2026, Governor Spanberger signed Senate Bill 405, which transfers all existing nursing workforce incentive programs from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority’s (VHWDA) Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, effective July 1, 2026.
For more information on Virginia’s Earn to Learn Acceleration Program for upcoming applications and programming, please visit VHWDA | Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority.
Current Virginia Earn to Learn Acceleration Program awardees will remain managed by the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Health Equity, until the conclusion of FY26/27.
