ABSTRACT. The purpose of this project is to increase the number of family, pediatric, and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (NP) prepared to meet the primary care needs of Arizona’s underserved communities and populations. This goal is accomplished by providing longitudinal community-based immersion clinical placements and financial traineeships to nursing students that are pursing education as family nurse practitioners (FNP), pediatric nurse practitioners (PNP) and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNP) through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at the University of Arizona College of Nursing (CON). Implementation of longitudinal clinical training for primary care nurse practitioner students’ includes development of new and enhanced practice partnerships with rural, border and medically underserved communities (MUC) in Arizona. The purpose of the longitudinal clinical rotations is an immersion experience designed to increase the capacity of nurses in MUCs to provide primary care with added competencies in social determinants of health (SDOH) specific to the local populations served. This project also requests ANEW traineeship funding for eligible primary care nurse practitioner students to meet all or part of the costs of tuition, fees, books and reasonable living expenses for their program of advanced education. Participating students will be required to do a minimum 3-month rotation of supervised clinical practice in a MUC within a collaborating regional Arizona Area Health Education Center (AzAHEC) and local clinical affiliates. Two regional AHEC center’s parent organizations operate clinical services: North Country Healthcare/Northern Arizona AHEC (NAHEC) located in Flagstaff, AZ, is a federal qualified health center (FQHC) and unique in that it is a combined regional AHEC center and FQHC entity. The Regional Center for Border Health located in Somerton, AZ operates the Western Arizona AHEC (WAHEC) and the San Luis Walk-In Clinic, a federal designated rural health clinic (RHC). Additional participating clinical affiliates include Yuma Regional Medical Center, located in Yuma, AZ (WAHEC Region), Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC) located in Flagstaff, AZ (NAHEC Region), and Banner Health Care, specifically Banner University Medical Center South (BUMCS) (SEAHEC Region), and Banner Payson Medical Center (EAHEC Region). The central AzAHEC program office will provide project coordination between the College of Nursing and the collaborating community clinical affiliates including the regional AHEC centers. Community-based learning experiences for ANEW trainees will be coordinated by the participating regional AHEC centers in collaboration with local clinical agencies, the CON faculty, and the AzAHEC program office. Project goals include: GOAL ONE: Improving access to primary care in Arizona’s rural and medically underserved communities through enhanced partnerships to educate primary care (family, pediatric, and psychiatric mental health) nurse practitioners in longitudinal community- based clinical training. GOAL TWO: Improving preceptor quality and satisfaction through support, training, innovation and effective partnerships. GOAL THREE: Increasing the number of primary care NPs by providing ANEW traineeships to nurses who are pursuing advanced degrees as primary care nurse practitioners. A statutory funding preference is requested because this project substantially benefits underserved populations. Special consideration is requested because 85% of the CON’s DNP clinical training sites are in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). Reel, Sally J.