[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 129 (Friday, July 7, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43361-43362]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14320]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for 
Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Nurse Corps Supplemental 
Funding Evaluation OMB No. 0915-xxxx--New

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

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA 
submitted an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. Comments submitted 
during the first public review of this ICR will be provided to OMB. OMB 
will accept further comments from the public during the review and 
approval period. OMB may act on HRSA's ICR only after the 30-day 
comment period for this notice has closed.

DATES: Comments on this ICR should be received no later than August 7, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request a copy of the clearance 
requests submitted to OMB for review, Samantha Miller, the Acting HRSA 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, at [email protected] or call 
301-443-3983.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 increase the nursing workforce in 
underserved areas. 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: (1) analysis of existing 
information, (2) a national survey of Nurse Corps participants and 
alumni, and (3) 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 U.S. 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. 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 the 
respondent's program and timeframe. 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 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.
    A 60-day notice published in the Federal Register on April 14, 
2023, vol. 88, No. 72; pp. 23091-92. There were no public comments.
    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

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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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                                                                                          Average
                                              Number of       Number of       Total      burden per     Total
                Form name                    respondents    responses per   responses     response      burden
                                                             respondent                  (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
                                          ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    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 Program--                5,082               1        5,082         0.42     2,134.44
 Clinical Nurse Participants and Alumni..
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Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program--Nurse             804               1          804         0.42       337.68
 Faculty Participants and Alumni.........
Nurse Corps Scholarship Program--                   1,416               1        1,416         0.42       594.72
 Participants and Alumni.................
                                          ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total................................           7,302                        7,302                  3,066.84
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Maria G. Button,
Director, Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2023-14320 Filed 7-6-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P