Virginia Nursing Students Could Get Paid for Clinical Work Under New $4.8M Grants

Nursing students in Virginia may soon get paid while completing the clinical training they are already required to do, under a new state grant program.

The Virginia Nursing Workforce Center is putting $4.8 million into Earn to Learn, a grant program that funds partnerships between nursing schools and hospitals or other health care providers so students can be hired and paid as nurse externs, patient care technicians, or certified nursing assistants while they are still enrolled.

In a profession where unpaid clinical hours are treated as a rite of passage, that is a real shift. The timing is tight: applications close September 30, 2026.

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The money goes to partnerships, not directly to students. According to Yvette Dorsey, director of the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center, the center will award up to 12 two-year grants worth up to $400,000 each. The center’s program page breaks it down as $200,000 per year for two years and requires a signed memorandum of understanding between the partners at the time of application.

Applicants must show they will expand paid clinical training, employ students at their current certification level, and help them finish required clinical hours. Recipients should be notified by November 1, 2026, with funding starting in January 2027.

Here is the part nurses will want to read twice: the state is not setting a wage. Dorsey told WHRO that participating schools and providers decide how much students are paid, and that participation does not guarantee a nursing job after graduating. Students will still need to pass the NCLEX and go through the employer’s normal hiring process, and nothing ties them to the facility where they trained.

The center promoted the funding on its Instagram account, writing that the program allows students “to earn income while completing required clinical training.”

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Retirements, Rural Gaps, and $10.6 Million That Went Unspent

A 2025 report from the Virginia Department of Health Professions found that 21% of the state’s registered nurses expect to retire within the next 10 years, and the workforce center says it wants the grants spread across the state, including in areas that struggle hardest to recruit.

“We need nurses in Southwest Virginia, in our most rural areas, to be able to support the communities that live there,” Dorsey said. Her pitch to students: “We want to make sure that we encourage and let future nurses know that the nursing profession is extremely rewarding, and that staying in Virginia, caring for Virginians, can actually help us lead the nation in fixing this workforce shortage.”

Cardinal News reported in June 2026 that roughly $10.6 million in unused funds had piled up across four Virginia nursing scholarship and incentive programs, and that a 2024 legislative audit found the Virginia Department of Health processed 96% of Nursing Preceptor Incentive Program payments later than the state’s 30-day prompt pay rule.

VDH spokesperson Cheryle Rodriguez told the outlet the programs “have grown exponentially in terms of the amount of funding that was allocated to VDH but without the start-up time or designated funds to build the administrative capacity necessary to efficiently manage these programs.”

Under legislation signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger this spring, the nursing incentive programs, which made up about 60% of the health workforce incentive programs VDH administered, moved to the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority on July 1, 2026. Earn to Learn itself is not new: VDH launched it in fiscal year 2024 with federal pandemic recovery funds. This is the first round run by the nursing workforce center.

Existing sites show what the model looks like in practice. Virginia Western Community College pairs third-semester students one-on-one with a nurse mentor at Carilion Clinic instead of grouping eight to 10 students under one instructor. Students there are paid two ways: a $2,288 per-semester stipend for the academic role, plus wages for a separate work role at their current certification level.

Paid clinicals hit a nerve because unpaid hours are the norm, and at the extreme end, students pay for the privilege. Nurse Ksenia Kiseleva wrote in April 2026 that students who turn to third-party placement agencies, a common last resort in graduate programs where students must find their own preceptors, are “routinely asked to pay $4,000-$5,000 for a single semester placement, typically covering around 250 hours of required clinical training.” Pre-licensure students rarely pay placement agencies, but their required clinical hours are still unpaid time that competes directly with the paid shifts many rely on. Flipping that equation changes who can realistically finish a nursing degree.

For practicing nurses, the impact lands on the unit. Students hired as externs and techs arrive already oriented to the charting system and the workflow. But they still need mentors, and the published grant guidance does not spell out how supervision time gets funded, so if your unit becomes a training site, ask early how precepting time is counted and compensated.

Two cautions: because the state is not setting a wage floor, pay will vary by partnership, so students should get the hourly rate, scheduled hours and role definition in writing before signing on. And an extern job is not a job offer. There is no employment guarantee attached to the grant, and no obligation to stay in Virginia after licensure.

If your Virginia school or facility wants in, the window closes September 30, 2026, with details on the Virginia Nursing Workforce Center site. Nurses elsewhere should watch this one: if Virginia can show paid clinical placements improve retention, expect the model to travel.

🤔 Should nursing students be paid for every clinical hour they work? Tell us what you would want in writing before you took a paid extern role.