(a)(1) The board shall establish and award, according to the judgment of the board, loans to provide for the training of qualified applicants for admission or students in accredited nursing education programs approved by the board who are pursuing a graduate degree to become a certified registered nurse practitioner (CRNP), a certified nurse midwife (CNM), or a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), but only for people who have signed contracts as provided in subsection (b). The board may permit eligible people to apply for a loan under the Alabama Loan-Repayment Program for Advanced-Practice Nursing in any scholastic year and for any previously completed scholastic year.

(2) The board may award to an eligible person, for as many as three years for a person pursuing a master's degree and as many as four years for a person pursuing a doctorate, an annual loan not to exceed $15,000, except that the board in each succeeding year may raise the maximum amount allowed for an annual loan by the average percentage increase for that year, compared to the previous year, in in-state tuition for graduate programs in advanced-practice nursing charged by public colleges or universities in Alabama.

(3) The board shall make a careful and thorough investigation of the ability, character and qualifications of each applicant for loans under the program, and shall in its judgment award a loan or loans under the requirements of the program.

A person who has signed such a contract with the board may postpone choosing an area of critical need in which to work to a time set by the board.

(b) A loan or loans under this program may be awarded only to people who have signed contracts with the board to repay amounts received under the program by working following graduation in full-time practice as a CRNA, CRNP, or CNM in an area of critical need for 18 months for each year he or she received a loan under the program.

(c) A participant, subject to approval by the board, may change the area of critical need where he or she will work to repay loans under this program, but in no case shall the applicant work in full-time practice for less than three years in the new area of critical need.