Katrina Asselin was a teen mom when she got the idea to become a nurse.
She had just given birth to her daughter, six days after her own 18th birthday, when the staff and nurses who helped during her delivery inspired her to pursue the same kind of work.
But there was no easy way to start down that path. Asselin couldn’t enroll in courses at the time, as there weren’t any night and weekend programs available. She eventually had more children, but her dream of becoming a nurse remained, even if it still seemed unattainable.
“I needed to take care of my little family that I was growing,” Asselin said.
Asselin eventually found work as a medical assistant, which she did for 12 years, before she was able to enroll and attend nursing school at Rivier University. She had class for four hours in the evenings, and nursing clinicals on weekends. She recalls many days where relatives had to take care of her kids so she could study.
“It really doesn't matter that you have four children at home and you work full time,” Asselin said. “They still have the assignments that are due, the projects that are due, you still have to attend class.”
Asselin is now working as a nurse at Elliot Hospital, after graduating this past May. But she said the hardest part of nursing school wasn’t the course work of a 20-month program: It was the challenge of balancing the demands of being a parent with her studies. The amount of time between studying and traveling added up.
Through Rivier University, Asselin found the Granite State P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. program, which aims to expand the number of nurses in the state to bridge staffing shortages and help people who are underrepresented or unserved find careers in nursing. The program offered Asselin help with the cost of uniforms, school supplies, and grocery and gas cards. Asselin said without the program, she wouldn’t have been able to afford gas to travel from Manchester to Nashua to attend classes.
Elliot Hospital received a $3 million grant in 2023 to lead the P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. program, and money from the grant will last until June 2028.
Funding for the program, after 2028, is uncertain after the Trump administration’s executive order to not renew programs that are related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In the meantime, leaders of the P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. program are looking for new funding to maintain a service that nurses like Asselin said they couldn’t get through school without.
Vanessa Rashid, the grant retention specialist who Asselin credits for making nursing school easier for her, said affordability and accessibility have been common challenges for those pursuing nursing studies.
“We know there's a big nursing shortage in the United States and also very much so in New Hampshire,” Rashid said. “So nursing programs, if they can brainstorm ways . . . to try and address some of those folks who can't make the typical full time school every day it would really open some more doors.”
There are 40 organizations working with Granite State P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. to help students who are on food assistance, re-entering the labor market or changing careers get through nursing school. Through those partnerships, the program tries to address barriers like transportation, language, and disabilities.
There’s are also few seats in nursing programs to begin with. Granite State P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. has seen roughly 900 applications, but there are only about 300 spots in their program.
Asselin said she’s hoping the P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. program can continue, as it made a big difference in her ability to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse.
“I mean it on every single level,” Asselin said. “I would not have been able to afford my semesters. I would not have been able to afford the gas. . . . This program is made for people who are like me, who had a rough start to life and who want better for their family and for their future. And this program gives us that opportunity.”
