Notice2023-07889
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Nurse Corps Supplemental Funding Evaluation
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 14, 2023
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services DepartmentHealth Resources and Services Administration
Abstract
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.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 72 (Friday, April 14, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 72 (Friday, April 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23091-23092]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e39382938691948c9188a38b919082cd848c95"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f18190819483869e839ab199838290df969e87">[email protected]</span></a> 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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#adddccddc8dfdac2dfc6edc5dfdecc83cac2db"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="483829382d3a3f273a2308203a3b29662f273e">[email protected]</span></a> 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
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