A program launched last summer to address the state's nursing shortage is getting ready for a new group of students.

The Appalachian Nursing Academy will once again bring in students from eastern Kentucky to the University of Pikeville, where they will be exposed to the field of nursing shaping our Appalachian region or SOAR puts on the academy.

They call it a homegrown solution to a national health care crisis.

It's really, really important that we keep local talent and make sure they're aware of of these jobs that are that are available.

One of the main talking points that we shared with these kids is you're needed.

And there are good paying jobs in eastern Kentucky.

And health care is a perfect example of a field to where if you're interested in this region, you could be interested.

You don't have to think about leaving like there's there's there's good paying jobs with phenomenal benefits.

The Academy started I think we ended up with 27 and we brought them on the campus of the University of Pikeville here in Pikeville for a two week intensive learning academy of all things dealing with nursing and with health care.

And so, you know, we connected them with nurses themselves.

We connected them with the hospital leadership.

They were able to get a CPR certification.

So it was a very well-rounded right then.

At the same time, they get to make a lot of friends from around the region that they wouldn't have made had it not been for this academy.

There's also a 1500 dollars scholarship for them upon completion of the program that was provided by the grant and the Kentucky Department for for Public Health.

I've been really wanting to go into nursing.

So I was like, Oh, hey, this is a great opportunity to get more info about the nursing field and make sure that that's exactly what I wanted to do.

And like, they had all kinds of options in nursing, which I didn't know.

So it taught me about all the different fields in nursing we were targeting high school students, you know, rising seniors, rising juniors, but those that the data show were falling through the cracks.

So the program was built around the idea of that.

STUDENT Right.

That student that is really trying hard, but just has has had to overcome some adversity, perseverance with the help of the nursing academy, I got a job at the doctor's office, so it really helped me a lot, especially in my career as nursing.

Plus, like everyone said, it's going to be great on a college application when I get off to college.

This is a long term thing, but you can imagine.

So kids were there for two weeks.

Now they'll graduate and hopefully start to matriculate into some nursing programs or other health care related programs.

And I plan on traveling first and then probably going back to Asia, to Turkey when I get a little bit older and just staying there for a little while for the rest of my career until I retire.

We just have to retain more than we are now right?

So if we can just convince even five to 10 to 15% more of these professionals, these recently graduate ID, whether it's community college or post-secondary or from a program, if we can convince 10% more of them, that would have left to stay.

That makes a big difference when you scale that year after year.

Last year, the program had 120 applicants but could only accept 30.

All said they're accepting even more too, expecting even more to apply this year and have expanded the number of accepted applicants to 45.