Clinician Recruitment and Servce

Nursing Workforce Development

Advanced Education Nursing

Authorizing Legislation - Section 811 of the Public Health Service Act.

FY 2008 Authorization.........................................................................................................Expired

Statement of the Budget Request - The FY 2008 Budget does not request funding for this program. This is $57,061,000 below the FY 2007 Continuing Resolution (CR).

Program Description - Approximately 13 percent of the nursing workforce is prepared at the master’s or doctoral level. The goal of the Advanced Education Nursing authority is to provide support for: (1) projects that support advanced nursing education and practice; and (2) traineeships for individuals in advanced education programs. This program awards grants and enters into contracts with eligible entities to meet the costs of projects and traineeships that support the preparation of registered nurses (RNs) as nurse faculty, nurse practitioners (NPs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), nurse-midwives (NMWs), nurse anesthetists, nurse administrators, public health nurses and other nurse specialties requiring advanced degrees.

Rationale for the Budget Request - The FY 2008 Budget does not request funding for this program. This is $57,061,000 below the FY 2007 CR. The President’s budget priority focuses on nursing programs that provide direct patient care in areas where nurses are critically needed through scholarship and loan repayment programs.

Funding levels for the Advanced Education Nursing Program during the last five years reflect this effort and are as follows:

Outputs:

Includes both full-time and part-time students

[1]   Advanced Education Nursing Program output targets have been consolidated and include Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Midwifery Programs, Nurse Anesthetist Education Programs and Other Educational Programs.

[2]   Traineeship Program targets have been consolidated and include the Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship Program and the Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship Program.

Performance Analysis - Most of the Health Professions’ Title VII and Title VIII programs were reviewed as a unit during the FY 2004 budget cycle using the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). This program was included in that assessment. These programs, in the aggregate, received a rating of Ineffective. New performance measures are being established for the Health Professions program overall.

Nursing Workforce Development

Nursing Workforce Diversity

Authorizing Legislation - Section 821 of the Public Health Service Act.

FY 2008 Authorization..........................................................................................................Expired

Statement of the Budget Request - The FY 2008 Budget is equal to the FY 2007 CR.

Program Description - The goal of the Nursing Workforce Diversity Program is to improve the diversity of the nursing workforce to meet the increasing need for culturally sensitive and quality health care. This goal is accomplished by awarding grants and entering into contracts with eligible entities to meet the costs of special projects to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented among registered nurses) by providing student scholarships or stipends, pre-entry preparation, and retention activities. In addition to contributing to the preparation of a racially and ethnically diverse nursing workforce, this program also contributes to the basic preparation of disadvantaged and minority nurses for leadership positions within the nursing profession and the health care community.

Historically, this program has played a significant role in enhancing the retention and graduation rates of minority and disadvantaged students through counseling, tutoring and mentoring services designed to assist students in enrolling and completing nursing education programs. Nursing schools that receive funding for Nursing Workforce Diversity Programs have enrollments of about 73 percent from minority groups, compared to a national average of 24 percent. All program participants are considered to come from a disadvantaged background and/or are from racial/ethnic minority groups. The program’s recruitment and retention activities targeting high school students and pre-nursing students have been successful in recruiting disadvantaged and minority young people into nursing.

Fiscal Year 2005 data reveal that projects impact approximately 5,909 post-high school, pre-nursing and nursing students yearly. In response to the need to increase diversity within the nursing workforce, funded projects have increased their focus on K-12 students. Fiscal Year 2005 data also reveal that over 14,831 K-12 students participated in activities designed to interest young people in the nursing profession. The FY 2005 data further shows that out of more than 20,740 racial/ethnic minority students/participants in the Nursing Workforce Diversity Program, 42 percent were African American/Black, 2 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native, 15 percent were Hispanic/Latino, 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, 35 percent were white disadvantaged and 1 percent self-reported more than one race.

Rationale for the Budget - The FY 2008 Budget is equal to the FY 2007 CR. The total request will facilitate the recruitment, retention and graduation of disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority nurses. In 2008, the scholarship authority will continue to assist students enrolled in supported projects to reduce the financial barrier to nursing education.

Although the minority population in the U.S. account for 33 percent of the total population, the 2004 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses reports that only 10.6 percent of the nursing workforce comes from racial/ethnic minority groups (however, there was a 7.5 percent non-response rate for racial/ethnic background). An estimated 500,000 registered nurses from racial/ethnic minority groups would be needed if the nurse population were to reflect the U.S. population as a whole.

Funding levels for the Nursing Workforce Diversity Program during the last five years reflect this effort and are as follows:

* These data represent programmatic outputs from FY 2005, reported in FY 2006 for students from the Nursing Workforce Diversity program.

**There will be fluctuations between minority and white disadvantaged enrollments based upon grants awarded in diverse geographic locations.

***Number of K-12 will decrease as efforts are focused more on high school students instead of elementary and middle school.

Performance Analysis - Most of the Health Professions’ Title VII and Title VIII programs were reviewed as a unit during the FY 2004 budget cycle using the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). This program was included in that assessment. These programs, in the aggregate, received a rating of Ineffective. New performance measures are being established for the Health Professions program overall.