Funding for Nursing Workforce Development

Georgia Nursing, Feb-Apr 2006

In order to meet the growing demand for nurses, investment in nursing workforce development programs is necessary. Currently, such programs are administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The budget for this Federal department totals more than $150 million.

Addressing the growing shortage must be actively pursued at both the Federal and state level. HRSA funding allows the implementation of programs designed to attract more students into nursing programs; improve the workplace for nursing; support schools of nursing to provide faculty and updated curricula; recruit a more diverse student population; provide assistance to students to enable them to complete nursing studies; and ensure the collection and analysis of current nursing workforce data to guide the appropriate implementation of these programs.

Federal support for support for nursing workforce development is through the HRSA/Title VIII funds. As the main source of funding for nursing education and recruitment, Title VIII includes programs of the Nurse Reinvestment Act. Some of the programs supported include the following:

* Advanced Education Nursing: Provides grants to nursing schools, academic health centers, and other entities to enhance education and practice for nurses in master's and post-master's programs. These programs prepare nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, nurse educators, nurse administrators and public health nurses.

* Workforce Diversity Grants: Provides grants to increase opportunities for individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students from economically disadvantaged families as well as racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented in the nursing profession. This authorizes HRSA to provide student scholarships or stipends, preentry preparation and retention activities.

* Nurse Education, Practice, and Retention Grants: This section supports schools and nurses at the associate and baccalaureate degree level. Grants are provided to schools of nursing, academic health centers, nursing centers, state and local governments and other public or private nonprofit entities. Some grants (such as grants promoting the Magnet best practices for nursing administration) are also available to health care facilities.

* Nurse Loan Repayments: This section contains the Nurse Education Loan Repayment Program (NELRP) and the new Nursing Scholarship Program. The NELRP repays 60 to 85 percent of outstanding student loans in return for an RN working full time for at least two years in a facility designated to have a critical shortage of nurses. HRSA is currently focusing on nurses who work in disproportionate share hospitals, departments of public health, and nursing facilities. Individual nurses apply directly to HRSA to receive these loan repayments.

* The Nursing Scholarship Program: Provides financial assistance to nursing students. Upon graduation these scholars are required to work for at least two years in a facility designated to have a critical shortage of nurses. Nursing students work with their school of nursing to apply for these scholarships.

* Nursing Faculty Loan Program: These grants establish student loan funds within schools of nursing. These funds are used to cancel up to 85 percent of the student loans (plus interest, over 4 years) of Masters or Doctoral students who agree to serve as full-time nursing faculty in the school after completion of their degree. Students should work with their schools to apply for these loans.

Why Funding is Necessary? Quick Facts at a Glance:

* As of October, 2004, 72 percent of US hospitals were experiencing an immediate nursing shortage.

* Some 126,000 nurses are needed to fill vacancies immediately. More than 75 percent of all hospital vacancies are for nurses.

* As "baby boomers" age (who constitute 78 million members of the US population) the demand for health care services will increase dramatically, compounding the shortage.

* The ratio of potential caregivers to those in need of care will decrease by 40 percent' through 2030 further dramatizing a shortage.

* Of 232,000 surgical patients across the US, the overall risk of death rose by 7 percent for each additional patient above four on a nurse's workload.

* The shortage of nurses contributes to nearly 25 percent of all unexpected incidents that kill or injure hospitalized patients.

* Some 32,797 qualified students were not accepted at schools of nursing for the 2004-2005 academic year. The rejection rates were the direct result of a shortage of faculty and too few seats based on student-faculty ratios allowed.

* The U.S. Department of Labor currently projects a 21 percent increase in the need for nurses through 2008. Other occupations come in at a collective 14 percent.

* By 2012, we will need to fill more than 1.1 million rgistered nurse openings to accommodate growth and replacement needs.

* During 2004, HRSA was forced to turn away some 82 percent of applicants to the Nurse Education Loan Repayment Program.