Georgia will be getting help training more high-level nurses in acute and critical care thanks to a $953,000 federal grant to Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing.

With the three-year grant, MCG aims to train 70 advanced-practice nurses in a doctoral-level program to become either acute-care nurse practitioners or critical-care clinical nurse specialists.

Georgia's only other program is at Emory University and "it's very expensive," said Dr. Janie Heath, the principal investigator on the grant and associate dean for academic affairs at MCG School of Nursing.

The program will be taught at campuses in Augusta, Athens and Macon.

"We saw this as a good opportunity for us to address the critical need that we have in our acute-care facilities and some of the issues that we're struggling with in terms of patient safety and quality because we have a significant critical care work force shortage," Heath said.

Georgia, and certainly Augusta, is lacking in this kind of provider, she said.

"When you look at the teams, you see advanced practice missing," Heath said.

But those advanced-practice nurses can be critical in providing continuous care, she said.

"Patients and families need that continuous, consistent care," Heath said, "someone who is the glue to help ensure that patients get seamless, safe and quality care because they are that constant variable that is there."