Project Summary. This project requests financial assistance through the Advanced Education Nurse Traineeship program for primary care nurse practitioner students. Specifically, eligible family nurse practitioner, pediatric nurse practitioner, and psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner students at the University of Arizona College of Nursing will be supported with traineeships to meet all or part of the costs of tuition, fees, books and reasonable living expenses (stipends) for their program of advanced education during the academic years 2014-2016. As Arizona is experiencing a severe primary care provider shortage and rural and underserved communities are experiencing the shortage more acutely, AENT support is requested to help increase the number of primary care nurse practitioners to increase access to primary care. Objectives. Project objectives include 1) increasing the number of primary care NPs; 2) increasing the representedness of the nursing primary care workforce; and 3) increasing the knowledge and competencies of the nursing primary care workforce to provide care to Arizona’s rural and underserved populations and communities. How the proposed project will be accomplished. The UA CON of Nursing offers two degree programs at the graduate level, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The DNP is the CON’s advanced practice program leading to four nurse practitioner specialty options: Family (FNP); Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP); Psychiatric- Mental Health (PMHNP) and Adult Gerontology Acute Care (AGACNP). AENT project financial assistance is requested for the UA CON’s three primary care specialties: Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatric-Mental Health. In each specialty there is a focus on advanced health assessment, primary prevention, health maintenance, and clinical decision-making and disease management. In addition courses designed to extend knowledge in substantive areas include family health across the lifespan, behavioral health, cardiovascular disease, women’s health, older adult health and rural health. Eligible primary care students who meet funding criteria will be selected to receive AENT awards. Recruitment and training mechanisms already in place enable the UA CON to meet the goals and funding preference of this funding opportunity. UA CON primary care enrollments have significantly increased since 2010. All NP students have mandatory 90-hour clinical practice experiences with a rural-based or medically underserved population. The Rural Health Professions Program (RHPP) is another available mechanism to train primary care NPs to work with Arizona’s rural and underserved populations and AENT trainees may apply to participate in the RHPP program.