The Department of Health and Human Services announced $55.5 million in funding to strengthen training for health professionals and increase the size of the nation’s healthcare workforce.

“These grants and the many training programs they support have a real impact by helping to create innovative care delivery models and improving access to high-quality care,” Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary, said in a news release.

More than 270 grants will address health workforce needs in nursing, public health, behavioral health, health workforce development and dentistry. The grants are managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an HHS agency.

A majority of the funding, $45.4 million, will support nursing workforce development in the following areas:

• Increasing the number of nurse faculty ($22.1 million): Provides low-interest loans to nurses to train to become faculty and loan cancellation for service as faculty.

• Improving nursing diversity ($5.2 million): Expands educational opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities who are underrepresented among RNs.

• Increasing nurse anesthetist traineeships ($2.2 million): Supports nurse anesthetist programs to provide traineeships to licensed RNs enrolled as full-time students in a master’s or doctoral nurse anesthesia program.

• Promoting interprofessional collaborative practice ($6.7 million): Brings together interprofessional teams of nurses and other health professionals to develop and implement innovative practice models for providing care.

• Supporting advanced nursing education ($9.2 million): Funds advanced nursing programs that support RNs in becoming nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and other practice nurses.

List of grants: www.hrsa.gov/about/news/2013tables/healthprofessions