(a) The board shall award grants under a nursing faculty grant program to eligible institutions of higher education to provide funding for qualified nursing staff working at clinical sites who serve as part-time nursing faculty at those institutions.
(b) The amount of a grant and the number of grants to be awarded must be based on the total number of nursing staff serving as part-time faculty in institutions of higher education throughout the state in the year for which the grant is awarded.
(c) A grant received under this section must be expended to support the applicable nursing faculty positions, including the faculty stipend.
(d) An institution of higher education must certify in the grant application the number of unfilled faculty positions to which the application applies and, after a grant is awarded, must certify which of those positions have been filled before receipt of the grant funds.
(e) The board shall prescribe the dates for the submission of applications and the award of grants under this section to ensure that a grant recipient has sufficient time to prepare for receipt and effective use of the grant funds before the academic period for which the grant is awarded.
(f) Grant amounts are awarded under this section for two consecutive state fiscal years. The board may distribute a grant amount for nursing faculty only on receiving the certification from the institution of higher education that the applicable nurse faculty position has been filled. For each first-year nursing faculty position for which a clinical site receives an initial grant amount in a state fiscal year, the board shall make available an equal grant amount for the subsequent state fiscal year contingent on filling the part-time nursing faculty positions funded by the grant in that second year.