Nursing Workforce Development

Nursing Workforce Diversity

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

Program Description and Accomplishments
The purpose of the Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) program is to provide Federal funding for projects to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented among registered nurses). The NWD Program was established in 1998 and provides grants or contracts to projects that incorporate retention programs, pre-entry preparation programs, and supports student scholarships and/or stipend programs. The goal of the NWD Program is to improve the diversity of the nursing workforce to meet the increasing need for culturally sensitive and quality health care. 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.

The NWD program supports projects that provide educational opportunities for students to become registered nurses and/or opportunities for practicing registered nurses to pursue a baccalaureate degree in nursing. This program directly serves eligible applicants such as schools of nursing, academic health centers, State and local governments, and other private or public entities determined appropriate by the Secretary. Schools of nursing must be accredited by a national nurse education accrediting agency or State approval agency recognized by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Project participants impacted by this program are students from disadvantaged backgrounds in grades K-12, post-high school students and students enrolled in pre-nursing and nursing programs. Projects are expected to demonstrate that the cohort of nursing students will graduate within the three-year project period.

It has been found that minority and disadvantaged nurses are more likely to serve in areas with a high proportion of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and to practice in or near designated health care shortage areas. Numerous studies have documented that increasing the number of minority health professionals as a key strategy to eliminating health disparities. Diversity in the health workforce will strengthen cultural competence throughout the health system. Cultural competence profoundly influences how health professionals deliver health care.

The NWD Program addresses three major initiatives: 1) retention programs, 2) pre-entry preparation programs, and 3) student scholarship and/or stipend programs.

The retention programs focus on creative interventions designed to assist nursing students from disadvantaged backgrounds to continue their pursuit of a nursing education. Nursing students are engaged in retention programs that include activities that are creative interventions designed to academically assist, mentor and coach disadvantaged nursing students to successfully complete the nursing programs. These activities address identified educational barriers, reduce attrition rates and improve graduation rates for NWD Program participants.

The pre-entry preparation programs focus on creative interventions designed to enhance the academic abilities and preparation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds to increase their competitiveness for entry into a professional nursing program. The program and its activities must identify, motivate, recruit and select potential candidates for a professional nursing education.

The student stipends and scholarships program provides financial assistance to project participants to enhance their ability for successful entrance and completion of a professional nursing education program. The purpose of the stipend and scholarship support is to reduce the financial barriers associated with disadvantaged students obtaining a higher level of education. The entity organization is responsible for disbursing scholarships and stipends to project participants.

In FY 2007:

• 2,697 high school, pre-nursing and nursing students received financial assistance through NWD funded grant stipends and scholarships in the amount of $3,242,197.
• The NWD Program awarded 51 grants to eligible entities to meet the costs of special projects to increase nursing education opportunities for 32,847 individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• 2,223 nursing students graduated from NWD funded nursing programs. Of those graduates, 990 (45 percent) were identified as disadvantaged minorities and 1,233 (55 percent) were identified as disadvantaged whites.
• 6,637 elementary and middle school students participated in NWD mentoring projects.
• 15,756 high school students participated in academic enrichment activities to increase their competitiveness for entry into nursing programs.
• 3,823 post high school and pre-nursing students and 6,631 nursing students participated in NWD funded nursing programs.

The accomplishments for FY 2007 are consistent with Fiscal Years 2006 and 2005 with 53 and 57 funded grants respectively.

Most of the Health Professions Title VII and Title VIII PHS Act programs were reviewed as a unit in 2002 using the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). This program was included in that assessment. See Summary of the Request.

Funding includes costs associated with grant reviews, processing of grants through the Grants Administration Tracking and Evaluation System (GATES) and HRSA’s electronic handbook, and follow-up performance reviews.

Funding History

Budget Request
The FY 2009 Request of $16,107,000 is an increase of $281,000 above the FY 2008 Enacted level. The increase will support an additional 507 minority student/participants and 149 white disadvantaged student/participants. Of these, the increase will support 133 additional nursing program students, 76 post-high school college pre-entry nursing students, and 447 K-12 participants. The increase will also support an additional 12 students receiving scholarships. The total request will support 656 minority and white disadvantaged students/participants.

Although the minority population in the U.S. accounts 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. To address this need in FY 2009, the total request will be used to prepare and train an estimated 25,392 minority and 7,455 white disadvantaged student/participants for a total of 32,847 minority and white disadvantaged students/participants. Of these, an estimated 6,631 nursing students, 3,823 pre-nursing and 22,393 K-12 students will benefit from this program. In addition, an estimated 618 disadvantaged nursing student will receive scholarships.

NA – Not Applicable

* This data represent programmatic outputs from FY 2006, reported in February, 2007 for students in the Nursing Workforce Diversity program.

** Level of Students/Participants is included in the Total Number and Percent of Minority and Disadvantaged White Students/Participants above.

NA – Not Applicable