There are many opportunities for military service members transitioning to civilian life. As veterans weigh their options, a career in nursing, the nation’s largest health care workforce, is a natural and highly rewarding choice.

Like nurses, veterans are service-oriented and work well under pressure. They are also hard-wired in their desire to serve others. Veterans reintegrating into civilian life seek the same sense of mission, meaning and purpose they found while serving their country.

But that’s not always easy to find.

For many, pursuing higher education can be a challenge. The problem may be financial. Many veterans also experience disruptions in their education while serving. Those who do get accepted to school often find that their military college credits and on-the-ground experience don’t transfer.

For more than a decade the Independence Blue Cross Foundation (IBX Foundation) has been dedicated to advancing and growing the nursing workforce and promoting diversity in the nursing profession. With feedback from its regional nursing school partners, the IBX Foundation saw a unique opportunity and created the IBX Foundation Service Scholars Program, a first-of-its-kind initiative that creates opportunities for veterans who want to pursue nursing careers.

The program provides nursing school scholarships to help cover tuition and other expenses for student veterans or service members pursuing a Bachelor of Science or associate degree in nursing. The program also includes career development opportunities and one-on-one mentoring.

One of the first nursing schools to partner with the IBX Foundation on this initiative is the Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursing, which has a major focus on educating veterans seeking new careers after service. The college works hard to recruit more men and women after they leave the armed services and take up nursing careers. Each year, the college gives preference in awarding its Robert/June Eyerly Scholarship to a student who has served in the military or is a descendant of a veteran.

By leveraging existing programs at nursing schools under the Yellow Ribbon program administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Service Scholars Program helps accelerate the pathway to a career in health care. For Jefferson College of Nursing Service Scholars, this also means an employment opportunity at a Jefferson Health hospital upon graduation.

Service Scholars comes at a time where there is a desperate need for more nurses with diverse skills and backgrounds. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, over the next decade, fewer than 200,000 nurses will enter the workforce, which is the amount needed to fill only one year of projected openings. In our state of Pennsylvania, the demand for nurses will increase by 9% by 2030. That puts the state in the top five with respect to the nursing gap, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Veterans are incredible leaders, and their unique skills can greatly benefit the nursing workforce. The Service Scholars program gives veterans an opportunity to have meaningful purpose in their civilian lives. It helps them not only further their own careers, but also brings highly-skilled professionals into the health care workforce at a time when it is most needed. We owe it to our dedicated service members to help them successfully transition back into lives and careers, and this program helps us do that.

For more information visit IBX Foundation Service Scholars.

Heather Major is the first executive director of the Independence Blue Cross (IBX) Foundation. She oversees the strategic direction and programmatic and operational activities of the IBX Foundation and Institute for Health Equity and hosts the IBX Foundation Someone You Know podcast, which addresses the stigma of addiction. Marie Ann Marino, EdD, RN, FAAN is dean and professor of Jefferson College of Nursing and vice president, nursing academic partnerships & innovation, of Jefferson Health.