The West Virginia University School of Nursing has won three federal grants worth more than $1.5 million total to help ease shortages of nurses in rural areas.

The grants, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are the first federal funding won for the school's new Quality of Life Institute initiatives.

The money will be used for education and training of new nurses, as well as stipends for nurse practitioner graduate students.

Another segment of funding will go to a five-year project studying ways to improve recruitment and retention of critical care nurses.