Notice2023-14320
Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Public Comment Request; Nurse Corps Supplemental Funding Evaluation OMB No. 0915-xxxx-New
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
July 7, 2023
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services DepartmentHealth Resources and Services Administration
Abstract
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.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 129 (Friday, July 7, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 129 (Friday, July 7, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43361-43362]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14320]
[[Page 43361]]
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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 <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. 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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#126273627760657d6079527a6061733c757d64"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="631302130611140c1108230b1110024d040c15">[email protected]</span></a> 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
[[Page 43362]]
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
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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 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.................
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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
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