[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 72 (Friday, April 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23091-23092]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-07889]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: 
Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Nurse 
Corps Supplemental Funding Evaluation

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department 
of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public 
comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection 
Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the 
public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the 
ICR.

DATES: Comments on this ICR should be received no later than June 13, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or mail the HRSA 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 14N136B, 5600 Fishers 
Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
draft instruments, email [email protected] or call Samantha Miller, 
the Acting HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, at 301-594-
4394.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When submitting comments or requesting 
information, please include the ICR title for reference.
    Information Collection Request Title: Nurse Corps Supplemental 
Funding Evaluation, OMB No. 0915-xxxx--New.
    Abstract: The objective of Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program (LRP) 
and Scholarship Program (SP) is to lessen the financial burden of those 
pursuing nursing careers in the hope of increasing nursing workforce 
participation in underserved areas. The programs support HRSA's overall 
mission to improve health outcomes and achieve health equity through 
access to quality services by optimizing the distribution of the 
nursing workforce. The Nurse Corps LRP reimburses educational loans for 
nurses who serve a minimum 2-year commitment in a critical shortage 
facility or work as nurse faculty in accredited schools of nursing. The 
Nurse Corps SP similarly pays for educational expenses of nursing 
students who agree to a minimum 2-year service commitment in critical 
shortage facilities upon graduation.
    HRSA last conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the Nurse Corps 
Programs in 2006. This notice describes plans for conducting an updated 
program evaluation to understand more recent program successes and 
challenges, including how the COVID-19 pandemic effected the programs. 
Additionally, HRSA seeks to understand the impact of additional funding 
for the Nurse Corps Programs from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. 
The evaluation will seek information from participants and alumni of 
the Nurse Corps Programs from 2017 through 2023 and will assess program 
outcomes from before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well 
as the impact of the American Rescue Plan funds. This mixed-methods 
evaluation will have three major components: analysis of existing 
information, a national survey of Nurse Corps participants and alumni, 
and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with participants and alumni.
    The national survey of Nurse Corps participants will target the 
following groups of respondents: LRP clinical nurse participants and 
alumni, LRP nurse faculty participants and alumni, SP participants 
(both in school and completing service obligation) and alumni. The 
survey will be designed and delivered via web and telephone, with 
reminders and a web address and a personal identification number for 
the survey sent by both mail and email. The survey will be conducted on 
a census of participants from 2017 through 2023, an estimated 7,302 
participants. The survey will be tested with a small number of program 
participants to ensure that respondents are interpreting items as 
intended. An interview will be completed with each respondent during 
which the interviewer will ask for more in-depth explanations about the 
participants' understanding and response to the survey questions. Each 
question will be tested on no more than nine Nurse Corps participants.
    As part of a comprehensive questionnaire design process, questions 
will be limited and refined to collect information not available 
through other sources. Any data collected will not be duplicative of 
that collected by HRSA for program monitoring. The questions will cover 
satisfaction with the program and service obligation site, intention to 
remain at the site, actual location of current practice (for alumni), 
training on preparedness for disasters and disease outbreaks in schools 
of nursing and on site, types of services provided on site, panel size 
and visit load, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service 
delivery. The survey will display only questions relevant to their 
programs and timeframes. Participation in the survey is voluntary, and 
participants will complete the survey one time.
    The IDIs will be conducted with 54 participants and alumni 
representing the range of respondent groups: 18 IDIs

[[Page 23092]]

will be conducted with LRP participants and alumni, 18 IDIs will be 
conducted with LRP nurse faculty participants and alumni, and 21 IDIs 
will be conducted with SP participants (both in school and completing 
their service obligation) and alumni. One-on-one IDIs with Nurse Corps 
participants and alumni will enrich the evaluation by eliciting data on 
the Nurse Corps experience that are more nuanced than what is feasible 
to collect through the survey alone. The 45-minute virtual IDIs will be 
conducted after the survey with a sample of current program 
participants and alumni. Recruitment approaches for the IDIs will 
include a survey question asking respondents if they would be willing 
to participate in an IDI as well as direct recruiting from the census 
of program participants and alumni via email. The IDIs will ask 
specifically about the process of and motivation for applying to the 
program, details about the Nurse Corps site experience, site-level 
resiliency strategies and whether they were successful, and experience 
working through the COVID-19 pandemic at Nurse Corps sites.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The information collected 
through the surveys and IDIs will fill gaps in the existing information 
available from other sources. Specific topics for data collection that 
are critical for evaluating the Nurse Corps Programs are discussed 
below.
    (1) Impact of the Programs on longer-term decisions to remain in 
the nursing workforce at a Nurse Corps site or in another underserved 
area. Understanding the long-range decisions of participants is 
critical to understanding the success of the Nurse Corps Programs, as 
its goal is to affect longer-term change in the nursing workforce 
distribution.
    (2) Experience and satisfaction with program participation, from 
the application phase through the service obligation phase. 
Participants and alumni are the only source of information about their 
experience and satisfaction with the program, which are important 
evaluation outcomes that will be used to inform future programming 
efforts.
    (3) Details of service provision and experience with COVID-19. The 
COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Nurse Corps Programs and the nursing 
workforce in different ways. On one hand, enhanced funding for the 
programs resulting from the pandemic led to increases in the annual 
number of participants. On the other, the pandemic fundamentally 
reshaped the work environment for nurses, leading to increased stress, 
risk of illness, and changes in how care is delivered. The survey will 
focus on the experiences of those serving before, during, and after the 
pandemic to understand how the pandemic shaped participants' decisions 
to remain in the nursing workforce and in critical shortage facilities.
    Likely Respondents: Nurse Corps LRP clinical participants and 
alumni (from 2017 through 2023), LRP nurse faculty participants and 
alumni (from 2017 through 2023), SP participants and alumni (from 2017 
through 2023).
    Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by 
persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or provide the 
information requested. This includes the time needed to review 
instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and 
systems for the purpose of collecting, validating, and verifying 
information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and 
providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to 
a collection of information; to search data sources; to complete and 
review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise 
disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for 
this ICR are summarized in the table below.
    Total Estimated Annualized Burden Hours:

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                                                     Number of                    Average burden
            Form name                Number of     responses per       Total       per response    Total burden
                                    respondents     respondent       responses      (in hours)         hours
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                                           In-depth Interviews (IDIs)
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LRP Clinical Nurses.............              18               1              18            0.75           13.50
LRP Nurse Faculty...............              18               1              18            0.75           13.50
SP Students.....................              21               1              21            0.75           15.75
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    Total.......................              57  ..............              57  ..............           42.75
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                             Web-based Surveys with Telephone Nonresponse Follow-up
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Nurse Corps Loan Repayment                 5,082               1           5,082            0.42        2,134.44
 Program--Clinical Nurse
 Participants and Alumni........
Nurse Corps Loan Repayment                   804               1             804            0.42          337.68
 Program--Nurse Faculty
 Participants and Alumni........
Nurse Corps Scholarship Program--          1,416               1           1,416            0.42          594.72
 Participants and Alumni........
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    Total.......................           7,302  ..............           7,302  ..............        3,066.84
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    HRSA specifically requests comments on: (1) the necessity and 
utility of the proposed information collection for the proper 
performance of the agency's functions; (2) the accuracy of the 
estimated burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology to 
minimize the information collection burden.

Maria G. Button,
Director, Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2023-07889 Filed 4-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P