HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvania-licensed nurses could soon have some of their student loan debt paid off for them.

A one-time student loan forgiveness program will provide up to $7,500 in debt reduction under a program that the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency’s board authorized on Thursday.

The Commonwealth’s Student Loan Relief for Nurses program comes at the direction of Gov. Tom Wolf using $5 million of the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan dollars. That money can be used to address emergent public health needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wolf Administration is hoping this debt relief will help the state deal with its nursing shortage that has worsened during the pandemic.

“Nursing is both a noble and in-demand profession, and the pandemic has highlighted the continuing need to support and retain our our nurses,” Wolf’s spokeswoman Beth Rementer said. “This program gives nurses financial relief so that they remain in their profession and continue to provide critical patient care.”

Across Pennsylvania and nationwide, nursing shortages have affected the level of care patients are receiving, from longer waiting times in emergency rooms to rushed or reduced care as health workers try to treat the influx of patients the pandemic has brought through their hospital or facility’s doors.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the United States’ nursing programs are producing about 170,000 nurses a year. However, 80,000 qualified applicants were turned away in 2019 due to an insufficient teaching staff.

This loan forgiveness program is intended to be a way to elevate concerns around the number of nurses available to work in the commonwealth and draw others into the profession with the hope of future financial assistance programs, said Elizabeth McCloud, PHEAA’s vice president of state grant and special programs.

Selected nurses will receive relief of up to $2,500 a year for each year of work, beginning in 2020, for up to three years. Applications will be available through pheaa.org/slrn beginning Jan. 1 and will be accepted through March 1. That webpage also will provide further information on the program.

“Few are more deserving of financial relief than the Pennsylvania nurses who have worked so selflessly on the front lines to care for our sick and injured despite the many risks of COVID,” said Rep. Mike Peifer, R-Pike County, who chairs PHEAA’s board of directors.

Based on the level of interest in this Pennsylvania nurse debt relief program expressed following last month’s announcement it was on the horizon, PHEAA officials anticipate demand will outstrip the available dollars.

To address that, Waynesburg University Chancellor Timothy Thyreen, who chairs the agency board’s needs analysis and aid coordination committee, said recipients will be randomly selected in such a manner to ensure that each geographic region of the commonwealth receives an equitable distribution of program dollars.

More specifically, PHEAA spokesman Keith New said applications received during the three-month window will be grouped into regions of the state based the applicant’s county of residence. Then each geographic region will have a proportional sampling of qualified applicants selected. For example, if 12% of the applicants live in a particular region, then 12% of the recipients will be selected randomly from that region.

Rules of the program require student loan payments to be made directly to federal or private loan servicers on the recipient’s behalf. Parent loans are not eligible. The total amount of loan forgiveness will not exceed the outstanding balance at the time of the application and payment of the relief funds.

Eligible applicants must be licensed through the Department of State and include registered nurses, practical nurses, certified registered nurse practitioners, and those who worked in-person at a qualifying nursing facility who began employment before Dec. 31 of this year.

Qualified nursing facilities include, among others, assisted living residences, home care agencies, home health care agencies, hospitals, independent living for the elderly programs, long-term care facilities, personal care homes, and pre-K through 12 schools.

Further, employers will have to certify the applicant’s employment indicating they had worked the equivalent of 20+ hours a week, as averaged out across the 12-month calendar year.