Kentucky has a severe shortage of health care providers.

According to the University of Louisville, at least part of 113 of the state's 120 counties are designated as health professionals shortage areas.

Kentucky also ranks at the bottom when it comes to meeting the need for primary care physicians.

While the University of Louisville hopes a new grant will change all that, that begins today's medical news.

Today, the university states receiving $16 million to increase training for medical students in underserved rural and urban communities.

The money is part of a four year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

U of the School of Medicine will use the grant to enhance existing programs and create a new program to train medical students in an urban environment while also helping students afford these programs.

Another group is working to address this shortage.

It's estimated Kentucky will need an extra 20,000 nurses by the year 2025.

A program at Midway University not only aims to build a career pipeline for future nurses, but move more nurses through it and into a hospital setting faster.

I've always been really, really interested in just taking care of people, being able to care for somebody, be there when no one else can be.

We are partnering with the local high schools and other high schools in central Kentucky in an effort to really help those high school students to be ready to transition and move right into our associate degree in nursing program.

It's kind of crazy.

I'm seeing a lot of my friends, you know, still in school or still searching for the right job or what they need to do in life and I'm over here about The Graduate with the 89 degree and, you know, have my life set up at 19.

They can apply to the program while they're in their senior year and they can actually be accepted to the fast track nursing program even before they graduate.

After the very beginning, it was a little hectic, a little scary because I was jumping into something right out of high school.

But it's super exciting because I was like, I'm going to be graduated at 19 with an associate's degree and I'm going to be a nurse.

The students are prepared.

They have nurse aid training, certified nurse training, and are encouraged to complete dual credits that allow them to meet the prerequisites for our program.

Therefore, when they get into the program, they have less time here and midway, so their tuition costs are also decreased.

So I graduate this December and 2023 with an associate's degree in nursing.

And so right now I'm in Advanced Med Surge, and that's technically my last class until my practicum, and then it's all smooth sailing in December.

So our associate degree in nursing program that is the evening option allows our students to complete the program in 16 months.

So it's it's very fast but also allows them to help with that nursing shortage that we're seeing.

I think everyone's aware that there is a very significant nursing shortage in Kentucky and also nationally.

So thinking about how can we prepare nurses to be to be prepared to be qualified, educated, but helping them to become nurses as quickly as possible.

It's made me look at life a little bit differently.

I'm ready to be mature in my life, ready to get things moving so I can have a better future for me.

My family.

I just think it's really important for high school students if they know or can even try to work ahead of their life and try to set up things that can benefit them for their future and their career and take those steps to do that while they can.

According to Midway University, the associate degree in nursing program has a pass rate of 90%.