The Michigan Department of Consumer & Industry Services awarded $10,000 to MSU and Monroe County Community College for nursing scholarships, state officials announced.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and David Hollister, director of the Michigan Department of Consumer & Industry Services, said Monday that each school will receive $5,000 to distribute to nursing students at the institute's discretion.

"Each university can use whatever procedure they want for forwarding the money," said Renee Canady, director of the Office of Student Affairs in the MSU College of Nursing. "We chose to award the scholarship to the nursing college applicants with the highest (grade-point average)."

Canady said the school divided the money to the top three students in the class.

The news of the scholarship came unexpectedly for nursing sophomore Lauren Hooper, who has the fourth-highest GPA in MSU's nursing program. "All the recipients had to be from Michigan, so I was next in line," she said, adding that she's grateful for any money to help ease her financial burden.

The scholarship was first awarded in 2000 after legislation in the Michigan Public Health Code created a specific fund called the Nurse Professional Fund. The provision provides for a portion of the nurse licensee exams to go into a fund to be used for the scholarships.

"If you speak to anyone in the health-care field, they will tell you there is a major nursing shortage," Granholm spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said.

Nursing shortages are not just a problem for Michigan. The American Hospital Association reported that there are about 126,000 nursing positions unfilled across the nation.

Funding for the scholarship isn't going to be cut, said Melanie Brim, director of the Michigan Bureau of Health Services. She said the fund's life is "projected forever, as long as the language remains the same in the statute, and there are nurses taking the exam."

Dettloff said the scholarships are an effort to attract more students to major in nursing and, eventually, to enter the profession.

"Many nurses want to leave the profession due to work conditions and quality of life," Dettloff said.