The University of Missouri will soon offer post masters certificates for mental health nurses.

"This is a post masters program, so they'll come back to get course work for child and adolescent mental health assessment and family interventions," said Jane Bostick, an associate teaching professor at the Sinclair School of Nursing.

The state of Missouri has only 27 certified advanced practice nurses.

"It's not a very attractive area for many people to go into. It doesn't have a lot of drama like the emergency room and ICUs and so forth," said Bostick.

This program was created, in part, to help change that number.

The new program hopes to address the shortage in mental health nurses.

Professors say university students have asked for a program like this for years.

"I think the more you specialize in something, the more of a difference you can make," said nursing student Amanda Sinise.

The program will go into effect fall of 2009, and most students are ready and waiting.

"I'm just really interested. I think there is a lot of room for improvement and there is a lot that we still don't know. To me, that's sort of intriguing because I want to be the one to figure it out," Sinise said.

Courses are available on the MU campus, as well as online.

The University of Missouri's Sinclair School of Nursing was awarded a $370,000 grant to develop the certificate program.